Men for all seasons

Phillip Borell's research into rugby league players tackles cultural stereotypes of masculinity, writes CAITLIN SYKES.

Do you really need one of Sky's new boxes?

Sky's new TV-streaming hardware is a long-overdue upgrade, but you might want to look at other options.

Rebel with a fork

Food writer, critic and MasterChef UK judge William Sitwell, proud scion of a long line of literary toffs, doesn't mince his words on his culinary passions and peeves.

The man who will be king

Next month's coronation marks the final chapter in Charles III's accession to the throne. But what kind of king will he be?

Strand of worms

Online DNA testing may reveal more than we bargained for and be used against us in far-reaching ways, warns NOEL O'HARE. It could also save our lives.

A stitch in time

Former shopaholic Amanda Butterworth now takes up arms against fast fashion, writes CAITLIN SYKES.

Going down a storm

Straight-talking Kieran McAnulty is the right bloke for the job of convincing people to accept the latest water reform proposal.

Stealing their hearts away

United States President Joe Biden has recently been through his beloved Ireland, less like a dose of salts than a river of soothing treacle.

Language matters

Driving around the South Island, I marvelled all over again. It's so vast and spectacular, so different, in many ways, from the North. It's so wildly beautiful it gives you a sense of privilege. In town for a book event at Wanaka's Festival of Colour, I talked to broadcaster Kathryn Ryan, and noticed our alternative north-south perspectives. She thought Wanaka was getting quite built up, while I, the Aucklander, could hardly believe the South Island's exhilarating emptiness.

Young, scared and feared

It was the winter of 2012, and I was sitting in my car in a parking lot - I find if you sit in a parking lot without a car you attract suspicion waiting for my daughter to emerge from a swim meet after-party. I flipped on NPR (National Public Radio) and spent the next hour listening, dumbfounded, to transgender kids and their parents tell stories from what seemed to be the first-ever gathering of those who shared their unique journey. I certainly already knew there were transgender people, but I'm equally certain I didn't know there were trans kids of single-digit age, and the stories from this conference - where clearly some of them realised for the first time they weren't alone in this were gut-wrenching.

Beware thinking big

The government could have saved itself and the country much angst by studying the mistakes of a past PM, writes RICK CHRISTIE.

In it for the long haul

Clarke Gayford clambers into the cab for a second season of his hit home-shift show.

Razzas on parade

A tour of our RSAS is an amiable Anzac Day excursion, barring some uncomfortable history.

Coming home to roost

Britain's greatest living nature broadcaster charts a lifetime of decline in his own backyard.

Home truths

Eviscerating lyrics draped in melodic indie rock.

Bearing up

Stefania LaVie Owen is ready for grown-up roles but on her own terms.

Breaking the silence

First-hand stories from both the victims and perpetrators of China's brutal Cultural Revolution make for a gripping history.

High spirits

Mountaineer overcomes a life altering accident to find contentment away from the alps.

Survival tactics

Pandemic satire delivers pacy plot and much food for thought.

Critical thinker

In questioning the wisdom of his forebears, a Greek philosopher laid the foundations for the modern scientific method.

Watch this space

Cyclone Gabrielle exposed telco vulnerabilities but now a satellite-to-mobile service is on the horizon.

Calories that count

Older people unintentionally losing weight are particularly at risk of becoming malnourished. Here are some tips for maintaining the kilos.

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Scientists have a better understanding of how the gut-brain link causes irritable bowel syndrome.

The enigma of the flying boot

A curious WWII badge left to ANN CHAPMAN by her mother turned out to be the insignia of a club dubbed the 'most exclusive in the world'.

An all-inclusive holiday?

Three public holidays claim to define our identity as New Zealanders. So which one should be our national day?

The unfortunate consequence

In an extract from her new book, Demonising a Good Doctor, former GP DR HELEN OVERTON revisits the 1988 Cartwright Inquiry into the treatment of cervical cancer at National Women's Hospital, and argues that it profoundly changed the way the health system is managed.

Force for good

Born in 1930s Austria, Inge Woolf devoted much of her later life to fostering tolerance in her adopted country of New Zealand.

Learning to breathe

For something so basic to health, good breathing doesn't come naturally to most of us. NIKI BEZZANT finds out where we're going wrong.

Underwater rescue

Dr Matt Carter is diving for the sake of seas in jeopardy from oil-leaching shipwrecks, writes CAITLIN SYKES.

The royal wave

Former PM Jacinda Ardern departs with dignity while the mean Greens scrap among themselves.