In the first instalment in the Money Talks series, Alice Webb-Liddall and Henry Oliver face up to their finances. As a culture, we’re not very good at talking about money. Financial literacy is hard enough as it is and it’s only made harder by our silence around money issues. We are afraid of discussing our … Read more
It’s natural to assume that the IT revolution will continue forward at a cracking pace, but what if there are limits on how much energy humanity can actually put towards it? That’s the focus of Professor Michael Fuhrer’s research, who is speaking at the Materialise conference this week in Wellington. The theory is called Moore’s … Read more
World Energy Day has put a spotlight on New Zealand’s sluggish progress towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Vector’s Beth Johnson explains why the time is right to accelerate. This week, Vector Lights on Auckland Harbour Bridge will celebrate the special occasion of World Energy Day by shining a light on the history of … Read more
Five women talk about challenging stereotypes in New Zealand’s ever-evolving beer scene. When Nicola Kay started her first brewing job, there were no women’s toilets. There had never been the need. It was the early 2000s, and Kay was working for Lion in Sydney. She’d been running the tasting panels at Lion New Zealand, then … Read more
From hand-rolling bliss balls to exporting to South Korea, Maria Slade spoke one half of Tom & Luke about taking their healthy bars and balls global. Tom Dorman may be one half of the duo giving its name to Kiwi healthy snacks success story Tom & Luke, but he is not a 50 percent kind of … Read more
In the second episode of The Good Citizen, a new podcast of interviews with exciting and innovative New Zealanders, Jeremy Hansen talks to Henry Crothers about having the bravery to transform our urban landscapes. “We need to stop chickening out.” Landscape architect and urban designer Henry Crothers is playing a guiding role in the creation … Read more
Today, British singer-songwriter Jess Glynne released her second album, Always In Between. If you don’t think you’ve heard of her, you probably have. Let us re-introduce you. One part ’90s house queen, one part Florence and/or the Machine and one part Natasha Bedingfield in her prime – Jess Glynne started off as a marketing manager … Read more
For 15 years Unitec has been working with the New Zealand Police to help diversify its intake of students. Jihee Junn looks at how Unitec’s ‘pre-police’ course is changing the demographics and culture of the police service. On a dreary, rainy Monday evening in Mount Albert, Sergeant John Brown is delivering a speech in front … Read more
The Single Object is a series exploring our material culture, examining the meaning and influence of the objects that surround us in everyday life. Lakiloko Keakea is the first Tuvaluan artist to have a solo exhibition, now showing at Objectspace, Madeleine Chapman explores the beauty and purpose of Tuvalu art. Like a lot of artists, Lakiloko … Read more
Simon Day sat down for fish tacos, beers and yarns with spearo Ant Broadhead. Ascension Island is a chunk of volcanic rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s 2,250km from the coast of South America and 1,600km from Africa. Other than the island and its British air force base, there’s almost nothing anywhere … Read more
By her early twenties, Kaylee Bell had achieved the top honours in local country music – Best Country Album in 2014 and APRA’s Best Country Song in 2015. Before that, she’d set her sights overseas where strong interest pushed her 2017 single ‘Getting Closer’ past 1.5 million streams. She’s just released two new songs and … Read more
Steve O’Connor CEO of Flick Electric writes about why he welcomes increased scrutiny for his industry. We’re not about political party flag-waving here at Flick – that’s not our mandate. What we are interested in is how political shifts and policy levers impact our customers, and Kiwi electricity users in general. So, all of us. … Read more
Tonnes upon tonnes of plastic waste with nowhere to go — there’s no easy solution, but for one group of Kiwi businesses, simply doing nothing was not an option. Until earlier this year, even the most diligent recyclers may not have given much thought to what happens to that plastic bottle after it’s been deposited … Read more
Henry Oliver talks to Anika Moa about humour, vulnerability, family and her new self-titled album. Anika Moa is fucking funny. She’s fucking funny on her newest show Anika Moa Unleashed. She’s fucking funny on Seven Sharp. She was fucking funny on Maori TV and The Herald before that. She’s fucking funny performing for kids. And … Read more
Controversial American academic and writer Christina Hoff Sommers is coming to New Zealand in 2019 for #FEMINIST, a talk with Roxane Gay about 21st century feminism. Alice Webb-Liddall spoke to her about what it means to be a self-styled ‘equity feminist’. With the self designed nickname “factual feminist”, Christina Hoff Sommers has defined her brand by … Read more
A bee-based riff on The Hunger Games, a remake of your favourite problematic 80s film, and The Spinoff’s very own new doco-series. This is what’s new to Lightbox in October! Get It to Te Papa (weekly from October 16) “Get It to Te Papa began in great and abiding failure,” says Hayden Donnell, host of The Spinoff’s … Read more
Genetic modification offers space-age healthcare, booming agriculture and a new weapon in the war on invasive species – if we choose to use it. Don Rowe reports. Since the first primordial slime congealed on our infant planet, bacteria and viruses have been locked in a state of total war. Reliant on other living cells to … Read more
Ngāi Tahu spent 150 years in cultural and economic poverty, dispossessed of the vast majority of their whenua and mahinga kai. Today, 20 years on from their landmark settlement with the Crown, they’re sitting atop a billion dollar pūtea, writes Don Rowe. At the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, almost half … Read more
It’s school holiday time again, and to help us survive the next two weeks of quality time with the fruits of our loins, we must turn to everything that is right and fair about the world: the television. It’s the friend we’ve always needed, in good times and in bad, in sunshine and in rain. … Read more
Keeping kids entertained during the holidays just became a lot easier, thanks to the new and improved Freeview On Demand. Tara Ward explores some of their best shows for children. With the spring rain an almost certainty, Freeview is the answer to every frazzled parents school holiday nightmares. The new on-demand platform combines all the … Read more
Vector’s sustainability manager Karl Check explains why the company is pushing for more urban forests, despite the April storm bringing down large numbers of trees and disrupting supply to thousands of customers. The rapid rise of the ‘as-a-service’ model – software, transport, energy and yes, even anything-as-a-service (XaaS) – has got me thinking about the … Read more
1997 was a simpler time – British anarchists topped the charts and you could buy collections of the day’s hits on little plastic discs. It was also the year the very first local edition of Now That’s What I Call Music was released. Henry Oliver takes a listen to Now! Vol 1. It’s the end … Read more
After giving birth to her first child, personal trainer Niki Clarke discovered there was nothing for her to wear to the gym to accommodate her changed body and desire to breastfeed. So she decided to do something about it. In 2013, Nikki Clarke and her husband Adam were expecting their first child. They’re both personal … Read more
Chris Warner, House, Shaun Murphy, Meredith Grey, Mindy Lahiri – there are a lot of doctors on our television, but who is the goodest? Madeleine Chapman investigates, and the results may surprise you. The Good Doctor season two drops on Lightbox weekly, starting from today. You can watch the entire first season on Lightbox right … Read more
Ex-Kids of 88 star Jordan Arts talks bidding wars, bigwigs and breakdowns – and tells Hussein Moses how, with new project HIGH HØØPS, he came out the other side. When Jordan Arts is in “aeroplane mode”, that means it’s time to get to work. It’s the term the Auckland musician uses to describe his late-night … Read more
Put them together and malt, water, hops and yeast creates something beautiful. Henry Oliver looks inside his beer, and discovers it’s really quite simple. In some ways, buying beer is more complicated than ever. What seemed like a simple choice in the past – basically: lager, ale or something fancy-sounding – is now complicated by … Read more
Six weeks ago, through a haze of blood, sweat, tears and citrus, a grapefruit IPA was born. This week, it’s finally time to introduce the concoction to the beer-loving public. You’d be forgiven for thinking that a craft beer-focused jaunt to Wellington would be all fun and games. But I’m a professional, and when I … Read more
In the first episode of The Good Citizen, a new podcast of interviews with exciting and innovative New Zealanders, Jeremy Hansen talks to Jade Kake about how the work of the Māori design movement can make life in Aotearoa better for all its citizens. “The problem with subdivisions is that there are too many divisions.” … Read more
The Single Object is a series exploring our material culture, examining the meaning and influence of objects that surround us in everyday life. In the third piece in the series Emma Ng examines the once lost Chinese typeface used to print the New Zealand Chinese Growers’ Monthly Journal. Consider the kiwifruit. The sweet and fuzzy berry has … Read more