News
New Zealand Listener
Down to earth diva
One of the great singers of our time, Joyce DiDonato is set to make her New Zealand debut with Berlioz.
8 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Tamahori in his own words
Opening credits
5 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Thought bubbles
Why do chewing gum and doodling help us concentrate?
3 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
The Don
Sir Donald McIntyre, 1934-2025
2 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
I'm a firestarter
Late spring is bonfire season out here in the sticks. It is the time of year when we rural types - even we half-baked, lily-livered ones who have washed up from the city - set fire to enormous piles of dead wood, felled trees and sundry vegetation that have been building up since last summer, or perhaps even the summer before.
2 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Salary sticks
Most discussions around pay equity involve raising women's wages to the equivalent of men's. But there is an alternative.
3 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
THE NOSE KNOWS
A New Zealand innovation is clearing the air for hayfever sufferers and revolutionising the $30 billion global nasal decongestant market.
2 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
View from the hilltop
A classy Hawke's Bay syrah hits all the right notes to command a high price.
2 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Speak easy
Much is still unknown about the causes of stuttering but researchers are making progress on its genetic origins.
3 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Recycling the family silver?
As election year looms, National is looking for ways to pay for its inevitable promises.
4 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Lee's life through a lens
Director Lee Tamahori launched his career with a film that became a cultural landmark, and went on to achieve international fame.
2 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Wood worker
Much-travelled singer-songwriter delivers mature, shape-shifting album.
1 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Nothing nebulous, Nicola
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has reinforced the contempt that this government has shown not just for the Treaty of Waitangi but for Māori generally.
3 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
When stars align
French Polynesians celebrate their version of Matariki, signalling the season of abundance, with an inaugural public holiday.
6 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
A feudal playground
The first time I went to Waiheke Island, in the 1980s, the place still had its own county council.
2 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Breaking the piggy bank
NZ's compulsory retirement savings scheme, axed by Rob Muldoon 50 years ago, would by now have provided a $1 trillion nest egg.
6 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Caged hogwash
A 'science summary' contradicting our animal welfare advisory agency is being used to justify a law change.
3 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Failing to retire
More than 45 years in the business, Toody Cole brings her latest band Downunder.
3 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
That's wizard
A strong cast and visuals make for a more thrilling sequel to 2024's success.
2 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Top reads of 2025
Our annual selection of the 100 most outstanding titles of the year, chosen by books editor Mark Broatch and Listener contributors.
10+ min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Going nowhere fast
It's green, but boy, is it mean: the escalating civil war over footpaths. Bikes, e-scooters and even stately paced mobility scooters are causing injury and aggro, facilitating crime at increasing rates worldwide, with various countries introducing controls.
2 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Ignorant no more
Ignorance of the law is no excuse - so went the maxim that meant you couldn't plead ignorance of the law as a defence. Citizens were presumed to know the law.
2 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
Last mouth talking
Three entitled men had an outsized influence over Australia across the 1980s and 90s. Two, Alan Jones and John Laws, were Sydney radio hosts to whom many politicians prostrated themselves. The third, Graham Richardson, was a member of the Australian Senate and behind-the-scenes fix-it man for Bob Hawke's Labor government. Their lives intertwined at the nexus of power, politics and privilege on the air waves, at high-end restaurants when they wished to be seen and, when not, deep within political and business backrooms. All claimed to be on the side of the less powerful, the meek and the marginalised.
2 min |
29 November-December 5 2025
New Zealand Listener
A touch of class
The New York Times' bestselling author Alison Roman gives family favourites an elegant twist.
6 min |
November 22-28, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Hype machines
Artificial intelligence feels gimmicky on the smartphone, even if it is doing some heavy lifting in the background.
2 min |
November 22-28, 2025
New Zealand Listener
It's not me, it's you
A CD tragic laments the end of an era.
2 min |
November 22-28, 2025
New Zealand Listener
High-risk distractions
A river cruise goes horribly wrong; 007's armourer gets his first fieldwork; and an unlikely indigenous pairing.
2 min |
November 22-28, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Magical mouthfuls
These New Zealand rieslings are classy, dry and underpriced.
1 min |
November 22-28, 2025
New Zealand Listener
This is my stop
Why do people escape to the country? People like us, or people entirely unlike us, do. It is a dream.
3 min |
November 22-28, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Behind the facade
Set in the mid-1970s on Italian film sets, Olivia Laing's complex literary thriller holds contemporary resonances.
3 min |