New Zealand Listener

03/01/2024

Punctuation is the table manners of language – an act of courtesy that makes life more pleasant for those around us – but its meticulous use may be on the way out, to the chagrin of grammar zealots.

Paul Little looks at recent studies and talks to punctuation aficionados on the history of subediting and why technology plans to change the way we write.

You can read the full story here: http://tinyurl.com/49jjaruw

03/01/2024

Best of the Listener 2023: What started as a three-year adventure ended up stretching over a decade, effectively the childhood of the Cooks’ children, Suzanne and Jon, aged four. Marked with danger, injury, isolation, scarcely any formal schooling and mounting family tensions, it turned from dream to nightmare, at least for Suzanne.

You can read more about Suzanne Heywood’s extraordinary adventures at the link below.

What started as a 3-year dream adventure at sea stretched into a nightmare decade.

03/01/2024

Best of the Listener 2023: On the eve of September’s Rugby World Cup in September, TVNZ 1 screened the documentary Family, Faith, Footy, a social history and bid to explain how commitment to family and the church shape Pasifika players.

You can read Russell Brown’s full story at the link below.

New doco is quite a lot more than a World Cup primer or a player confessional.

02/01/2024

Need some inspiration in the kitchen these holidays? Or something quick and easy to whip up when friends call in?

Find simple, delicious recipes here in our new ‘Light lunch’ series, which features some of Aotearoa’s favourite chefs and their go-to recipes, from Sam Low, Al Brown, Michael Van De Elzen and more: http://tinyurl.com/5ydwhskf

📷: Michael Van De Elzen’s fresh tomatoes with herby crumbs, Al Brown’s grilled mussels and Sam Low's Chinese Brown Sugar Steamed Cake.

02/01/2024

Best of the Listener 2023: Sam Stubbs, co-founder and public face of Simplicity, the not-for-profit KiwiSaver and fund manager, is in Oslo. He is not there to research possible investment opportunities for the fast-growing company, nor to examine how a socially progressive country tends its citizens’ finances.

He’s there because he told his son, that if he applied himself to his studies, he would take him on a trip anywhere in the world.

The financial high-flyer has no credit cards and basic insurance.

02/01/2024

Best of the Listener 2023: After the election, National went to work with coalition negotiations to form the next government. For six weeks, there was little to report, leading to much speculation about was going on behind closed doors.

But Listener columnist Michele Hewitson found that the silence from the next government is golden – and given how many thousands read her column, it’s safe to say a number of our readers may have agreed.

Waiting to learn the make-up of our next government? Enjoy the quiet while it lasts.

02/01/2024

About a third of New Year's resolutions don’t survive into the second week of January. Jennifer Bowden explores why sticking to our New Year’s resolutions eludes so many of us.

Making New Year’s resolutions is easy, sticking to them is another matter entirely.

02/01/2024

From the archives: For those dipping their toes in the water this summer, it’s common to consider the threat of a sharp-toothed predator, especially when there is news of a shark attack.

In 2018, Russell Baillie spoke with Queensland-based shark scientist Blake Chapman on the unjust influence of Stephen Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws and the disproportionate fear and misunderstanding of the species.

Odds are deaths at the beach are far more likely to be drownings or boating accidents.

01/01/2024

Kelly Gibney dishes up a quick crowd pleaser.

01/01/2024

Best of the Listener 2023: Nikki Bezzant wanted to know why New Zealanders spend a fortune on supplements with little evidence for what works.

She talked with Canterbury-based dietitian Claudia Vavasour, who spoke of something she sees in her practice regularly. “Most women who come and see me are taking 10 or more supplements,” she says. “They’ve spent a fortune".

Kiwis spend a fortune on supplements with little evidence for what works.

01/01/2024

Stuff your wallets and load up your debit cards: a welter of titles from familiar and new names are on their way this year.

Books editor Mark Broatch previews the pick of next year's new releases.

31/12/2023

Each summer, the Listener commissions some of Aotearoa’s finest writers to tell us a short tale. This year’s theme is “second acts”.

Enjoy our first three this New Year’s Day, written by Chad Taylor, Jacqueline Bublitz and Tina Shaw.

You can read the full stories here: http://tinyurl.com/5cshmv4z

31/12/2023

Best of the Listener 2023: By 2014, Vitale Lafaele was on track to becoming the country’s first Pasifika district commander. But a piece of paper handed to him across a desk later that year brought a stunning career and personal trajectory to a sudden and shattering halt.

You can read more about what happened to Lafaele, and how he overcame it, at the link below.

"A piece of paper handed to him across a desk brought a stunning career to a halt."

31/12/2023

Best of the Listener 2023: “Unfortunately, Liam Neeson left his special set of skills at home for this one and his latest cash cow is a shoo-in for Worst Film of the Year. Dull, drawn out and atrociously acted, it elicits laughs where it shouldn’t, and won’t satisfy fans just there for the gun fights and car chases.”

Possibly not one to watch these holidays, but you can read Watt’s full review at the link below.

Unfortunately, Liam Neeson left his special set of skills at home for this one.

30/12/2023

“With Oppenheimer and Napoleon, we’ve already had big-name directors delivering biopics of unforgiveable geniuses. Now there are two more. Both are about towering figures of the 20th century, the sort of men who forced their nearest and dearest to orbit around them.”

Russell Baillie reviews Maestro and Ferrari -- one a great film while the other runs out of gas.

Read the reviews here: http://tinyurl.com/2uvvwj6p

30/12/2023

Best of the Listener 2023: No matter what was going on, the Listener’s newest online columnist, Duncan Garner, wasn’t backing down on a stance he’s taken since he started interviewing politicians.

Garner says as long as he interviews politicians, he will stick with his self-imposed rule of not voting in a general election.

I made this decision just aged 21. I was covering Parliament. It was an unforgiving place.

30/12/2023

Best of the Listener 2023: A lack of exercise is contributing to a burgeoning health crisis.

University of Auckland nutrition professor David Cameron-Smith described New Zealanders as “the undermuscled generation” after research at the university’s Liggins Institute in 2018 sounded the alarm about “an epidemic of frailty”. “We are puny compared with previous generations.

We need to remodel not just our bodies, but our cities and workplaces.

30/12/2023

From the archives: Planning to do some hiking and tramping this summer?

In this story, from 2018, read about the remarkable woman who helped the Milford Track become a premier destination for those wanting to escape into the great outdoors.

Blanche Baughan, one of our first travel writers, put the Milford Track on the map.

30/12/2023

From the archives: If you’re still recovering from overindulging on Christmas Day, consider what the first Christmas dinner in Aotearoa was like - and what the records and artefacts left behind reveal about early Māori and Pākehā encounters.

In 2019, Sally Blundell spoke to archaeologist Ian Smith about the broken, the worn out, the discarded and the abandoned – buttons, iron nails, broken dolls, lacing hooks, chips of dinnerware and hundreds of clay to***co pipes - and the stories they tell.

Early interaction between Māori and Pākehā may have been more balanced than expected.

29/12/2023

Café de Paris butter with lemon and herb croutons jazz up Al Brown's mussels recipe.

29/12/2023

Best of the Listener 2023: Parents are increasingly dipping into their own savings to help their adult children with daily living costs – but that is only entrenching the wealth gap.

Although the Consumer research looked purely at housing assistance, economists point to a rising number of parents who are supporting their young adult children in other ways.

Parents with the best of intentions are entrenching NZ's wealth gap.

29/12/2023

Best of the Listener 2023: Taika Waititi visited Auckland earlier this year to promote his latest film Next Goal Wins.

Waititi told Russell Baillie that most of his mates – Oscar Kightley, Beulah Koale, Dave Fane among them – were in it: “I think Robbie Magasiva is the only one not in this.” He also said that rather than focusing on work, he just wanted to “spend my money and enjoy it”.

As his new comedy arrives, Taika Waititi talks ego, money and having nothing left to prove

29/12/2023

Not so pristine: Wharariki Bay, where Megan Blakie picked up a sackful of plastic rubbish.

"Commercial debris forms a core of the plastic pollution we collect."

29/12/2023

Best of the Listener 2023: This year, Nicky Pellegrino interviewed Dr Rachelle Buchbinder and Australian orthopaedic surgeon and author Ian Harris who wrote Hippocrasy.

Buchbinder and Harris claim that one of the greatest threats to human health is, in fact, the healthcare system. Unnecessary tests are leading to treatments that may not benefit patients and may even hurt them.

Read the full story at the link below.

It’s time for patients to start asking tougher questions, doctors argue.

28/12/2023

"Nearly two-thirds of New Zealand GPs plan to retire in the next 10 years and there aren’t enough younger ones to take our place."

Two GPs have spent three years travelling the country as locums, plugging gaps in overstretched practices.

You can read their report here: http://tinyurl.com/4mj4wc4p

28/12/2023

Niva & Yotam Kay share some fermented faves from their recent book.

28/12/2023

Best of the Listener 2023: Less than a month before the General Election, and with support for Labour falling fast, Danyl McLauchlan’s considered what was going wrong.

“Chris Hipkins never spoke to the very sour mood of the nation after three years of post-Covid disappointment, high prices and political failure. His vision for the future is that the nation’s trajectory will stay more or less the same – but that he will eat pies on the way.”

Looking back at polling trends suggests that the 2023 budget was the turning point.

28/12/2023

Research shows that holidays do indeed improve our mental and physical health.

Visiting the Coromandel cures stress and anxiety. What's the evidence for this?

28/12/2023

The job of caring for people’s health is a privilege and a responsibility, but it’s also stressful and unrewarding at times. A doctor writes of a recent day on the general practice frontline.

The doctor will see you now? Another day on the beleaguered health frontlines.

27/12/2023

Best of the Listener 2023: Tumana Sullivan has found himself with a boss who is not average; a boss who understands what it’s like to struggle because he has been there, too.

Ta**us Taurima is the employer who gave him a chance, hiring him three years ago to learn civil construction skills. For Sullivan and other workers, he’s the bro who defied the odds and showed them that a difficult past need not define the future.

Hastings youth are learning a difficult past doesn't have to define their futures.

27/12/2023

The daily grind can be transformed into a source of daily joy, says leading organisational psychologist Adam Grant. But how, in reality, do you achieve such a thing?

Talking to Scottish drummer Evelyn Glennie, Grant shares examples and practical tips on how you can unlock your hidden potential, revealing why persistence and routine doesn’t always spell success. Read about it in this week’s Listener 📰

26/12/2023

Throughout 2023, Russell Brown wrote compelling and personal stories about the impact of being diagnosed with ADHD as adults had on the lives of his friends and himself.

These stories, and later Brown’s interview with BBC presenter Chris Packham, who is autistic, were some of our most widely-read stories of 2023.

Read the full story at the link below.

Russell Brown continues his story on being diagnosed ADHD as an adult.

26/12/2023

Mark Broatch gives quick reviews on new Kiwi and international titles.

25/12/2023

Dark clouds are gathering on the economic horizon, but can the new government do more than simply complain about the past regime and repeal its efforts to fix the country’s big problems?

"There’s a logic to the relentless destruction of Labour’s legacy."

21/12/2023

2023 wasn’t a vintage year for New Zealand sport but it wasn’t bad, either. So why does it feel worse than it was?

From the Warriors to the Football Ferns, Paul Thomas looks back on the year in sport, many a world cup and why familiarity may have bred fan disengagement for our most iconic sport.

You can read the full story here: http://tinyurl.com/mt9rye35

Get the latest breaking news, analysis and opinion from NZ and around the world, including politics, business, sport, entertainment, travel and more, with NZ Herald

21/12/2023

The Bigger Picture: 70 years since the Tangiwai rail disaster

On Christmas Eve, 1953, an express steam locomotive hauling 11 carriages left Wellington bound for Auckland. Many of the 285 passengers and crew were heading home for Christmas.

http://tinyurl.com/4dny5axj

Get the latest breaking news, analysis and opinion from NZ and around the world, including politics, business, sport, entertainment, travel and more, with NZ Herald

21/12/2023

We were welcoming co-hosts and enthusiastic supporters of the Fifa Women’s World Cup. Kiwis revelled in having a ringside seat at one of the biggest events on the global sporting calendar, a highly competitive yet festive celebration of women’s sport.

Not a vintage year for NZ sport but it wasn't bad, either. So why does it feel worse?

21/12/2023

If you’re reading this while sipping from your Stanley water bottle and nibbling on a “girl dinner”, TikTok’s cultural influence has well and truly permeated your every day.

It’s full of content we love and loathe — from questionable food trends to viral dances — but we can’t seem to look away.

The worst - and weirdest - TikTok trends of 2023 and why they need to end.

20/12/2023

The contentious issue of who discovered the pavlova has bounced across the ditch for decades. But no matter its origin, it’s still a favourite and a staple in the Christmas feast.

In a pavlova tribute, writers Andrew Paul Wood and Annabelle Utrecht debate the history of the iconic dessert, while chef Christall Lowe shares her recipe for the perfect pav.

You can read the full story here: http://tinyurl.com/4tswbuyu

📷: Christall Lowe

Get the latest breaking news, analysis and opinion from NZ and around the world, including politics, business, sport, entertainment, travel and more, with NZ Herald