After a three-year wait, Imugi 이무기 have just released their sophomore EP, Dragonfruit. Matt McAuley caught up with the Auckland band to learn what they’ve been up to since their 2017 debut. Attending Rangitoto College on Auckland’s North Shore in the mid-2010s, Yery Cho and Carl Ruwhiu first entered each other’s orbits mostly because they’d … Read more
With crisp notes of family, the beach and Christmas, a bottle of bubbles is much more than just a drink, it’s a moment. The Spinoff staff share their favourite memories and recommendations for Champagne and sparkling wine. Simon Day: Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV My wife’s birthday is right in the middle of December and … Read more
Technology has the potential to save the lives of communities with health issues, as long as it isn’t to hard to use. Ben Fahy learns how St John is using the Internet of Things to respond faster and better to emergencies. In March this year, the day before Aotearoa first went into Covid-19 lockdown, St … Read more
In part four of Coming Home, hosts Duncan Greive and Jane Yee find out what returning to New Zealand this year was like – and why it didn’t always go as smoothly as anticipated. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually listen to podcasts. Everyone we spoke to for this episode had a … Read more
The outgoing director of grassroots community campaigning organisation ActionStation joins Duncan Greive to talk about a busy, and effective, few years in the job. ActionStation was formed in 2014, but it feels like it’s been around much longer than that. The independent, crowdfunded community organisation has led a number of highly visible and successful campaigns … Read more
A new series of videos uses comedy to debunk misinformation that’s proved to be particularly visible in South Auckland. Justin Latif spoke with local community leaders about why these theories find South Auckland such fertile ground, and what can be done to curtail their spread. “I have family who believes in all sorts of conspiracies … Read more
It’s December. You know what that means? Christmas is here. You know what else that means? Christmas movies are here. Sam Brooks has watched all the Christmas movies on Neon, here’s what he learned from them. ‘Tis the jolly season! There’s no better time of year than to turn up the aircon, chuck a beer … Read more
The pandemic has given us the chance to build a more secure, sustainable, resilient food system – one that is healthier and supports people more fairly. This is the second essay in a new series examining the effects of Covid-19 on New Zealand, in partnership with Te Pūnaha Matatini. Wednesday is hāngī day at the … Read more
In an era of online everything, brick-and-mortar retail faces unique challenges. Now Spark is looking to innovative, immersive experiences to keep people coming back. On the average day, the main commercial artery of Queen Street in Central Auckland sees a fraction of the foot traffic that it did a year ago. The vacant atmosphere is … Read more
In the third part of Coming Home, hosts Duncan Greive and Jane Yee talk to recently returned New Zealanders about the different factors that brought them home this year. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually listen to podcasts. We’ve heard a lot so far about the factors that have for decades driven New Zealanders to … Read more
With a $1.3 million seed round now under its belt, New Zealand startup Yabble is looking to help everyday consumers get fairly rewarded for their data by shaking up the way information gets bought and sold. Data is a powerful resource in today’s economy. Managed well, it can help businesses get ahead by giving consumers … Read more
The no-nonsense comfort food is enjoying something of a renaissance, and Anna King Shahab has come up with some simple meal starter ideas to spark your mince-spiration. T-paper, flour, mince. The grocery shopping priorities of our nation were revealed unceremoniously when Covid-19 made “panic buying” a household phrase earlier this year. It wasn’t all doom … Read more
In the final episode of the first season of Conversations That Count – Ngā Kōrero Whai Take, we discuss and dissect the way that Aotearoa talks about mental wellbeing. Content warning: this episode contains extensive discussions of mental health, including brief mentions of suicide and abuse. It goes without saying that New Zealand’s approach to … Read more
This month Chorus launched its new Hyperfibre service across most of the country. How fast does it go? And what does it mean for New Zealand’s digital future? The Spinoff spoke to Kurt Rodgers, Chorus network strategist, to find out. OK, ‘Hyperfibre’. What is it? Simply put, Hyperfibre is ultra-fast – like, staggeringly fast – … Read more
In part two of Coming Home, hosts Duncan Greive and Jane Yee meet more recently returned New Zealanders and learn what factors drew them abroad and what life looked like in their new home countries. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually listen to podcasts. In last week’s episode, we heard about the “brain drain” … Read more
Before Splore, there was a South Island music festival that celebrated ‘unity through diversity’ in the final years of the 20th century. In this piece originally published on AudioCulture, Gary Steel tells the tale of The Gathering. To paraphrase a famous hippie festival homily, if you can remember it you probably weren’t there. Despite its … Read more
In a time of changing tastes, diets, supply chains and ways of working, Goodtime Pies has had to constantly adapt. Alex Braae examines the evolution of the humble pie. The petrol station pie has always been a classic, but it has come a long way since being a lunch of last resort. Once a driver … Read more
Thousands of highly-skilled New Zealanders are returning from overseas as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. But why did they leave in the first place? Listen to episode one of Coming Home now. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you usually listen to podcasts. New episodes arriving weekly, brought to you by The Spinoff and Kiwibank. For … Read more
After years watching it unfold on social media with a growing envy, Duncan Greive finally hit the road to Beervana last year. With the 2020 edition about to kick off, he revisits a magic day. My day started early, with a beautifully balanced Westmalle Trappist Dubbel over a hearty omelette, just after 9am. It was … Read more
Twenty years ago, TV made TrueBliss into New Zealand’s biggest girl band. In this piece, first published in 2019 by AudioCulture, Gabe McDonnell tracks the rise and fall of the country’s first made-for-TV popstars. Before “Our image is kind of like naughty but nice.” Once upon a time in 1999 Peter Urlich sat sipping wine … Read more
Siouxsie Wiles explains why she immunises, and the commitment you make to the community when you do. My daughter was just a few days old when she received her first vaccination. She was born in a part of London where the BCG vaccine was routinely given to newborns to protect them from tuberculosis. Holding her … Read more
The Internet of Things can create tiny efficiencies that amount to a lot of money. Ben Fahy reports on how the IoT is changing the way businesses work. Back in the 1830s, a depressed minister from Massachusetts named Lorenzo Langstroth got into beekeeping as therapy. His hobby eventually led him to develop the moveable comb … Read more
Theatre has been used as a medium to communicate society’s toughest issues for hundreds of years. Every Brilliant Thing is a show by Silo Theatre company encouraging thoughtful discussion of depression and suicide in a year where people’s mental health has been put under heavy pressure. As we shuffle into the opening performance of Every … Read more
Unilever is on a mission to eliminate fossil-derived carbon from all of its cleaning products by 2030. Russell Brown learns how the company is cleaning the carbon out of its cleaning products. There’s a train coming and we’re all on the tracks. We know it’s coming, everybody’s talking about the train and how much it’s … Read more
In new series Coming Home, Duncan Greive and Jane Yee meet some of the many highly skilled New Zealanders who’ve returned in 2020 to hear their stories and explore what their return means for all of us. The pandemic has handed New Zealand a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – how do we stop it slipping through our … Read more
More than 500,000 native trees have been planted through the Trees That Count programme, funded by New Zealanders and the local business community. Here comes Christmas, and with it the season’s usual tsunami of plastic garbage: trinkets bought, exchanged, discarded. Wasted. But how else is one expected to navigate the gift-giving season? Simply refuse to … Read more
Has the year 2020 taught us anything, in between all the disease and political upheaval? The Phoenix Summit asked some of New Zealand’s top creatives how their industries are changing. At the beginning of the year a new decade full of festivals, audiences and showcases was promised. By March, many people were writing off 2020 … Read more
Across Aotearoa, Māori responded to the unique needs of their communities during the peak of Covid-19. Two Māori organisations share the lessons from their success. Hutia te rito o te harakeke Kei hea te kōmako e kō? Whakatairangitia, rere ki uta, rere ki tai; Ui mai ki ahau, He aha te mea nui o te … Read more
The Comey Rule, which revolves around FBI director James Comey in the run-up to the 2016 US election and the early months of Donald Trump’s presidency, drops on Neon this week. Here’s a rundown of the cast of characters in the political mire of the US, and who’s playing who. Jeff Daniels as James Comey … Read more