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New Zealand Listener Magazine - August 30 - September 5, 2025

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In this issue

Touching a nerve - Using the power of the vagus nerve to boost heart, brain & emotional health. Wry not? The bent-beaked wrybill for Bird of the Year. The least worst - McLauchlan on choosing the next government.

On the wry side

A unique and charismatic New Zealander needs greater recognition, writes Keith Woodley ahead of the annual Bird of the Year flap.

2 mins

An inspiration vacuum

Politicians don't have to be bold to win, but the safe approach can deliver underwhelming governments.

4 mins

Frogs in pots

My hair is not on fire. I know because I just checked. But it should be.

3 mins

All too common

Did English author Beatrix Potter but know it, she foresaw the dystopian future when she created voracious landowner Mr Tod, a tweedy fox, and the unwelcome visitor Tommy Brock, a disreputable rucksack-toting badger.

2 mins

Going to America

America! It has an incredibly high opinion of itself, but I am willing to concede there is no greater country in the world in between Canada and Mexico. It thinks everyone wants a piece of it, is just dying to cross its borders and live there for ever and ever. ICE is Trump's fever dream. We all know about New Zealand mum Sarah Shaw and her 6-year-old son being detained for three weeks at an ICE detention facility in Texas. Anyone wanting a visa is sent on a fool's errand.

2 mins

A Dickensian boy in a heatwave

Hilarity is contagious. At a dinner in London, I listened as a woman described her friend's experience. He'd nipped to his Notting Hill supermarket to get some organic oat milk. As he shopped, a masked gang with knives burst in and began robbing the place. Then a fight broke out among the robbers, and soon the masked gang were stabbing each other in the aisles. Her friend stood there in his cashmere sweater, clutching his oat milk, knives and blood flying around him, and it was like, \"Oh my god...\"

2 mins

It happens in vagus

A nerve that acts as a 'superhighway' between brain and body is increasingly seen as key to controlling inflammation, the root cause of a swathe of killer diseases. In a new book, US neurosurgeon Kevin J Tracey explores the promise - and the myths - of vagus nerve stimulation.

10+ mins

Power swerve

Former finance minister Grant Robertson's memoir goes full circle, from his political baptism in Dunedin through the toll of the Covid years to his return to Otago.

10+ mins

Going for a song

The NZ Youth Choir's winning ways have hit the news, but as the popularity of community singalongs shows, you don't have to be a good singer to join a choir.

8 mins

Different worlds

An encounter with the Asmats of Southern Papua exposes a cultural divide thousands of years in the making.

5 mins

Distant minds

In his latest novel, a Kiwi author is interested in secrets, control and our inability to truly communicate with others.

3 mins

Force of nature

An off-the-grid debut thriller brings to evocative life the disquieting wilderness of the West Coast.

2 mins

A shot in the dark

For his first novel, former doctor Adam Kay mixes medicine, mystery and murder with a solid dose of humour.

2 mins

High and dry

Former journo's tense, compelling crime novel is one of the best to come out of Australia in recent times.

2 mins

Solving the puzzle

I still think our finest fiction writer of crime - which is not the same as crime fiction writer was Maurice Gee.

2 mins

Trigger happy

Political satire coughs up the laughs.

1 mins

Going for broke

Husband and wife team direct and star in bittersweet movie drawn from experience.

2 mins

Senseless sensibility

Possessed of good intentions, this Austen romcom is in want of a plot.

1 mins

McKenzie country

Flight of the Conchord-ian gets folksy and rootsy on second solo album.

2 mins

A novel take on Austen era

Big-name modern authors ponder the lasting influence of Jane Austen in epic docudrama marking her 250th anniverary.

3 mins

Read all Stories from New Zealand Listener

New Zealand Listener Magazine Description:

Publisher: Are-Media

Category: News

Language: English

Frequency: Weekly

The New Zealand Listener is New Zealand’s highest-selling and best-read current affairs magazine. Each week the Listener brings you the latest commentary and insight from award-winning writers and columnists.

An energising read, full of witty insight and award-winning investigative journalism, this is the magazine that has been setting New Zealand’s agenda since 1939.