Undefined
New Zealand Listener
Hum dinger
The year's NZ music books have a high-volume encore.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Slap the slop this summer
2025 was the year Al slop oozed into every corner of the internet. I'm taking the summer to go cold turkey.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Shelling out
Eggshells are a great source of calcium, but think again if you're contemplating adding them to your diet.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Heavyweight division
Mark Broatch checks out the year's best coffee table books.
3 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
As bad as it gets
Veteran filmmaker wide of the mark in dated political comedy drama.
1 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Inspect a gadget
The 10 best tech upgrades of 2025.
4 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
To absent friends
A search of Listener issues from ages past reveals the lack of classy wines was long lamented.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
That thinking feeling
Far from being emotionally driven, gut feelings can help us to make the best decisions, says a US expert on entrepreneurialism.
9 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Diamonds in the rough
In a year in which our usual sources of sporting pride stumbled, some unlikely heroes sparkled.
7 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Thai up
Rocker Jimmy Barnes and wife Jane deliver seasonal recipes with an accent on Southeast Asia.
4 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
You should have been there
It was a year of wonderful performances but fewer wonderful concerts.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Lives in a holding pattern
Syrian refugees who fled civil war are increasingly unwelcome in the countries that took them in. But they face going home to renewed violence and a devastated economy.
10+ min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Flake news
Yes, those denigrated as 'snowflakes' do tend to be more liberal and likely to see injustice in the world.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
The broken man
It was an unseasonably hot afternoon. Driving, listening to the radio, I complained to the dog about a verbal solecism I kept hearing: the justice system is “broken”. The health system is “broken”. It’s a very basic word to apply to complex situations. If a surgeon announced, “My patient is broken,” you'd think it was language worthy of a toddler.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Something in the air
Polymath author and adventurer Simon Winchester on his 'grasshopper mind' and current fascination - the wind.
8 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
An aspirational Christmas
I am going to make a banana and artichoke wreath to put on the door. Why? Because 'tis the time of the year when one must, by law, deck the halls with boughs of holly while singing, tunelessly, fa, la, la, la, la, etc. And one must, again by law, have a homemade Christmas wreath to hang on the door to show you are not just the perfect homemaker, but you are also enviably creative. I don't think anything could express your enviable creativity better than a banana and artichoke wreath.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Honourable members, take a bow
The late Tariana Turia set a high bar, so who deserves the top gongs in the Listener's 2025 political prowess awards?
5 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
The kids are alright
Were I a master of understatement, I might say now is not America's finest hour.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Thinking and feeling
In this edited extract, Laura Huang explains how watching investors shaped her ideas about the role of gut feelings.
4 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
The more things change
Inauspiciously, the first thing I wrote for this magazine was a political column, at a time when there was pretty much no politics.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Less sharp but still cutting
Former Prince Charles and ex-007 play detective duo.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Mercy not strain'd
Mercy was horribly absent in the recent case of the “suitcase murders”, so-called because Auckland woman Hakyung Lee killed her two young children and placed their bodies inside airtight orange suitcases, leaving them to mummify in a storage locker for four years until they were discovered. I attended the trial (Listener, October 11 & 18) and returned for the sentencing at the High Court at Auckland in the Christmas season.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Piece train
Very readable collection of novellas unified by seasoned writer's keen observations.
2 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Heavenly hubbies
Til death do we part gets a clever rethink in afterlife romcom.
1 min |
December 20-26, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Cut off in infancy
A new way of delivering health services would have benefited Pākehā as well as Māori.
8 min |
December 13-19, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Take a dive
The ethics of the mosh pit allow for a safe place to get down and physical.
2 min |
December 13-19, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Law flip-flops bad for all
If people are expected to know the law, they must be sure that the law is certain and predictable. That way, individuals and businesses can organise their affairs with confidence.
2 min |
December 13-19, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Let it blow
Startlingly original tale of a wind in Cumbria and its power over the people.
3 min |
December 13-19, 2025
New Zealand Listener
The old and the destitute
Once you start looking for them in Berlin, you realise how many there actually are: older people who rummage around in public trash looking for plastic or glass bottles. If the bottle has a recycling symbol printed on it, you can get anything from 5-25 eurocents when you return it to the grocery store.
2 min |
December 13-19, 2025
New Zealand Listener
Getting into the groove
Morag Atchison swings from choral work to a tango-based mass that might get her dancing.
2 min |