CATEGORIES

Uncovering our past

For veteran broadcaster Cameron Bennett, navigating the origins and consequences of the New Zealand Wars has been both confronting and exhilarating.

Friend or foe?

An ambiguous war memorial on the banks of the Waikato River raises confronting questions about what it is commemorating.

Taonga tales

Collections of war memorabilia no longer just signify battles and bravery; they have evolved to tell us about ourselves.

Branching out

A lexander Hamilton described the courts as the least dangerous branch of government.

A real head banger

We owe an incalculable debt to scientists but they could have done with a crash course in tact before laying their latest, inevitably disempowering, tranche of findings on us: intermittent fasting could kill you, they now tell us in their pitiless way.

New media epoch

The week it was confirmed that a significant chunk of the nation's news media landscape was to disappear was also the week I officially retired my own long-standing media venture. No jobs were lost.

All going to pot

What would happen when Germany legalised cannabis?

Dying of the light

If the coalition sees any value in preserving balanced journalism, its lifeline might be a little late in coming.

Candid cameras in wartime

Clandestine photos have been unearthed and turned into a documentary showing Kiwi soldiers during World War II as they have never been seen before.

Return of the queen

Beth Orton brings the personal songs of her career-reviving album to NZ.

Fanny, the musical

How do you turn Jane Austen into opera and why pick Mansfield Park, her most demanding novel? Composer Jonathan Dove explains his approach to Richard Betts.

It's in the blood

Michael Bennett returns his Maori detective to her roots ina convincing, highly anticipated second novel.

Touchstones

Ahead of the Aotearoa Art Fair, Sally Blundell asks New Zealand artists about their favourite local artwork and why it moves them.

Room at the Top

The Opportunities Party could well be a force to be reckoned with as a centrist voice - it's just lacking a leader, a campaign and a lot of money.

Brought to book

He's rich, opinionated and believes in doing good for the community. Property developer Mark Todd is a study in contrasts.

'Why aren't you listening to me?!"

To really understand each other, our brains need to be in sync, says author Charles Duhigg. And, yes, there are ways to get on to the same wavelength.

The virus that came to stay

With current funding for our Covid response drawing to a close, there’s growing recognition that many people are suffering debilitating long-term effects. What’s the next move?

The chips are down

It's a forecast no Irish person with a sense of history expected ever to hear again: a severe potato shortage looms.

Faces turned to the horizon

In a public library in Wellington, I said to the librarian, \"I'm losing my mind.\" He was a kindly young man, unfazed as he showed me what to do. He was so helpful my spirits began to rise.

Money down the drain

At the end of last month, the annual Oxford-Cambridge boat race took place on the River Thames.

All stuffed up

New Zealand requires more than a strong decongestant to clear the circuitous routes to effective change.

A recipe for life

On the shelves here at Lush Places are fusty-smelling two old books. One is a green contacts book. Its cover is faded and the edges battered. The other is an equally faded maroon recipe book. It has a chunk out of the spine.

Walking the plank

On November 19, 2023, a helicopter operated by the Houthi-controlled Yemeni navy hovered over the vehicle carrier Galaxy Leader, passing through the Red Sea.

Familiar faces into the fray

The government’s new consultants and advisers have decades of experience between them, but do they also come with vested interests?

In tune with the times

What's a tune worth? Not as much as previously anticipated for Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the Guernsey-registered company that launched in 2018 on the promise of the song as an unbeatable financial asset.

Advance Australia, without NZ

At nearly 70, Don Farrell is the oldest minister in the Australian government-a wily backroom tactician who has spent 16 mostly invisible years in Parliament.

Flights of fancy

Peter Walker cleverly weaves Arabian tales, early Chinese and Persian voyages, eccentric amateur fossil hunters and a colonialist hardman” into one intriguing story.

Shots in the mist

Early photography was regarded as magic when it arrived in New Zealand. But soon, everyone was doing it.

A sight for Sora eyes

OpenAl’s latest text-to-video tool takes AI to a new level but raises some troubling questions in the process.

My great admirer

Narcissism is characterised by a deeply ingrained sense of deserving respect - yet some narcissists lack self-esteem.