Эпизоды
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This week, staff writer Gabi Lardies steps in as guest host, joined by Books editor Claire Mabey to discuss her in-depth investigative cover story. Claire is deeply embedded in the publishing industry in Aotearoa, so she clearly remembers the shock when Narrative Muse was awarded $500,000 to boost sales of New Zealand books. In a closely connected sector, no-one had heard of Narrative Muse, or any of the people behind it, before. Three years later, Claire has canvassed the industry to see what impact that half a million dollars had, if any.
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Bulletin editor Stewart Sowman-Lund has had a few roles in his time at the Spinoff, first as live updates editor, then reporter, and now as bulletin editor. Writing a bulletin every morning takes up plenty of his time, but he also specialises in following those random, one-off tips that every journalist gets.This week’s tip was from a man who had strangely been called by the police while driving, to tell him to stop using his phone while driving.
‘It was quite baffling’: Police call driver on motorway to say ‘stop using your phone’ -
Пропущенные эпизоды?
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This week 10 years ago, a website was launched. It was a TV blog, dedicated to the most prestige and the most comforting of shows, and it had two writers on staff, founder Duncan Greive and film critic Alex Casey. The first article ever published by thespinoff.co.nz was about the return of Full House. Today, that website has an editorial team of 20, with writers and editors in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. We have podcasts, like this one, video series and live events. The Spinoff 10 years on looks very different to the little TV blog that launched in September 2014. But some names persist.
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After more than 80 columns, Hera’s advice spans the spectrum of human troubles. For our live event, we revisited three problems from the archives, talked about Hera’s response, and heard updates from the callers themselves. Note: the callers emailed in their updates so the voices you hear won’t be their actual voices. Instead you’ll hear some of the greatest voice talent that works in the Spinoff offices.
To find out more about The Spinoff's series of live events visit https://thespinoff.co.nz/events
Help Me Hera: An acquaintance is in love with me and it’s making me uncomfortable
Help Me Hera: I’m trans and my mum is a Posie Parker superfan
Help Me Hera: I’m desperate to have kids but my partner is stalling -
Staff writer Gabi Lardies has been to plenty of radical left gatherings in her time. But despite her enthusiasm for the causes, she’s found herself increasingly disillusioned with the results, or lack thereof. Last week, Gabi headed along to yet another meeting of Auckland’s radical leftists to report from the inside and see if this time would be any different.
The result is a gentle yet illuminating portrait of radical groups, regardless of the lean.
‘Where angels fear to tread’: A night at Auckland Irish Club with radical leftists -
Documentary maker Julie Zhu is the director of Takeout Kids, an observational series following five children as they work and grow up in their parents’ shops.
The series is beautiful, both in the stories it tells but also literally, with a focus on scene-setting and stunning cinematography. Julie joins Madeleine Chapman this week to talk about how she finds the short stories within hours and hours of footage, and the special considerations required when filming with young people.
Takeout Kids season two trailer
The Ground We Won trailer
Takeout Kids season one -
Anna Rawhiti-Connell knows more about the internet and how it functions than probably any other journalist in New Zealand. And this week she had the perfect subject: Raygun, the Olympic breakdancing competitor from Australia.
Raygun has been many different things since she first revealed herself in the final weekend of the Paris Games. She’s been an icon, an embarrassment, a hero, and now apparently the subject of an investigation. Anna tracked her rise and fall and rise and fall in a deep dive for The Spinoff. She joins Madeleine Chapman this week to talk about the latest developments, as well as share in some lukewarm takes about New Zealand’s success in Olympic sports.
Anatomy of an Olympic internet sensation: Raygun’s fall and rise and fall and rise and…
‘That’s hip hop’ -
Senior writer Alex Casey has this week written an incredible longform feature about the rising trend of young children coveting skincare. Note: this is not about makeup or wearing your mum’s lipstick. It’s about 10 year olds using serums and anti-wrinkle creams.
Alex has been thinking, writing about and living the beauty industry for years, and this is likely just the first in a series of big features about a billion-dollar industry with controversial aims. She joins Madeleine Chapman this week to talk about the unique challenges of interviewing kids and her own spotty history with skincare and beauty.
‘It’s insidious and dangerous’: The kids fighting wrinkles before their 10th birthday -
Hera Lindsay Bird has been writing the extremely popular Help Me Hera advice column for over a year now, offering incisive, funny and wise guidance to New Zealand’s biggest and smallest problems. And soon, you’ll be able to hear her talk about that advice at some Spinoff live events. Hera joins Madeleine Chapman this week as she’s also an Olympics obsessive and has written about the games, specifically which events should be culled and which should be added. It’s surprisingly reasoned and justified for such a hot take.
Help Me Hera
Ten sports we should cut from the Olympic programme (and what could replace them) -
Alice Neville has been with The Spinoff since 2018, originally hired as the food editor and now the deputy editor. Within our small team, she oversees any news coverage we run, particularly around politics and social issues.
Alice joins Madeleine Chapman as this week was a big week of news on The Spinoff, with the release of the final report from the royal commission of inquiry into abuse in care. It was breaking news but also something we knew was coming, which is a very particular type of challenge for a small team without any dedicated news reporters. Plus, Alice makes a case for the crucial work that the invisible sub-editors do every day.
Righting the wrongs of the past: The abuse in care inquiry’s key recommendations
A long list of ministers and leaders found at fault for allowing abuse in care
‘I’m even more concerned’: A survivor’s response to the final abuse in care report -
Gabi Lardies wrote this week's Cover Story about the rise of home surveillance cameras.
It’s a big piece of work that started as a simple observation of something she had seen in local Facebook groups. The feature unpicks aspects of human behaviour, crime and mass survellieance and it asks a big question about the trade-offs we make when embracing ubiquitous, convenient and cheap technology solutions to perceived problems.
Gabi joins Anna Rawhiti-Connell to discuss her observational instinct as a journalist, how she substantiates those observations, and how she balances empathetic and human storytelling with very big and often morally questionable forces on a topic like this.
Stories discussed:
Selling security, delivering anxiety: The rise of home surveillance cameras
Yes, those are testicles hanging from my car -
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith started at The Spinoff as a staff writer two weeks ago and has three stories under her belt already. Her story this week, "Remembering Suzanne Paul’s ‘cursed’ Māori Village", marked twenty years since Paul closed the doors on her Māori cultural theme park on Auckland’s North Shore. Lyric was three years old when it all went down, so used records of journalism past to piece together a current-day view of a really weird moment in our pop culture history and a venture described as “the most significant event in Paul’s demise”.
Lyric joins Anna Rawhiti-Connell on Behind the Story to discuss whether the internet truly never forgets, celebrity profile writing, her love of pop culture, and live blogging while trying to buy tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras concert.
Read the story: Remembering Suzanne Paul’s ‘cursed’ Māori Village -
Spinoff founder Duncan Greive has been writing regularly this year on business, politics and pop culture. But his slightly more niche area of interest is the media itself. This week was a big week for the media with AM and Newshub airing their final episodes and a new lease on life for the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill.
If you don’t know what that bill is, check out Duncan’s author page on the Spinoff, as he has written more about it than probably anyone else in the country. He also spoke to Samantha Hayes and Mike McRoberts about their time at Three in a sprawling, emotional interview.
Duncan joins Madeleine Chapman on Behind the Story to talk about what he’s looking for in exit interviews, how he keeps a story interesting over a number of years, and what compels him to write.
An abrupt U-turn from National, a brave new world for news in New Zealand
Sam Hayes and Mike McRoberts look back in awe and sorrow -
Spinoff staff writer Shanti Mathias sat down to record a test pilot episode of Behind the Story two months ago, about her recent feature “Staring down the ‘silent epidemic’ of myopia in children”.
Just last week, Shanti was awarded Best Emerging Journalist at the inaugural science journalism awards, for this particular story. The judges were impressed with how ‘on-the-scene’ the reporting was, including the voices of school students and the team running the vision-checking bus. A hugely deserving win and the perfect excuse to release the tapes.
Shanti joins Madeleine Chapman on Behind the Story to talk about what she learned, the surprising lack of data available in New Zealand around our eyes, and some practical tips to keep your eyes stronger for longer.
Stories discussed:
Staring down the ‘silent epidemic’ of myopia in children -
Spinoff staff writer Tara Ward has loved and examined local TV for longer than any other Spinoff writer. As the longest consistent contributor to The Spinoff outside of its founder, Tara has long been the go-to voice for local matters on screen.
A master of the power ranking format, Tara’s ability to both genuinely love and critique New Zealand’s most iconic (and obscure) shows is unique among journalists. More recently, she’s become the editor of pop culture newsletter Rec Room (subscribe here) and interviewer for The Spinoff’s weekend format My Life in TV. Tara joins Madeleine Chapman to talk a year of My Life in TV, getting to know her favourite screen talent, and what our local shows tell us about ourselves as a nation.
Click here to read about the best things Tara and Alex have learnt after a year of My Life in TV -
We thought you might like a wee taster of our brand new #1 series, Juggernaut: The Story of the Fourth Labour Government, hosted by Toby Manhire. Click here to follow Juggernaut so you get every episode as soon as it's released!
1. I love you, Mr Lange
Fuelled by brandy and fury, Sir Rob Muldoon calls a snap election, sparking a 1984 campaign of contrasts – the menacing, protectionist National PM against the fresh, upbeat Labour leader, David Lange. The pretext for the election is the decision by Marilyn Waring, a young, gay MP, to back an anti-nuclear bill and quit the National caucus, prompting an earful from Muldoon. Lange, meanwhile, is joined at the hip by a hungry would-be finance minister, Roger Douglas. They are about to confront a profound crisis, and launch a revolution.
Includes previously unheard interviews with David Lange from the 84 campaign trail, and new and exclusive interviews with Marilyn Waring, Roger Douglas, Geoffrey Palmer, Richard Prebble, Peter Harris, Margaret Wilson, Bob Harvey and Gary McCormick.
Click here for full details of archive material used in this series
Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air. -
Spinoff editor-at-large Toby Manhire spent “nearly every waking hour” of the past six months living in 1984. Researching, hosting and executive-producing Juggernaut meant learning everything about the 1984 snap election, David Lange, Roger Douglas and the huge reforms they oversaw.
Interviewing more than 20 key people from that era, Toby pulled together hours and hours of transcripts and archive material to create a six-part record of arguably the most impactful government (for better or worse) in New Zealand political history. Toby joins Madeleine Chapman live from the Juggernaut launch to talk switching mediums, working with unreliable memories and resisting the urge to interrogate former politicians.
Listen to Juggernaut here. -
Spinoff staff writer Gabi Lardies recently had a big win at the Voyager Media Awards, for best junior feature writer. Gabi first worked at the Spinoff in 2022 so is categorically a junior writer, but as she confesses, she’s secretly 33 years old and has had a colourful work history prior to becoming a journalist.
Her recognised work focuses on observational feature writing, stepping into a very specific scene and painting a picture of it for the reader. And this week, Gabi painted a picture of a hunger strike, particularly Will Alexander’s, who announced a strike for Palestine on May 18 and called it off after 19 days at the request of Palestinians. Gabi joins Madeleine Chapman on Behind the Story to talk switching careers, the importance of mentoring and what happens when your story is overtaken by events.Stories discussed:
An interview with Will Alexander, who was willing to die for the people of Palestine
A morning at the death cafe
Where did the age of consent come from, and how does it work today? -
The Spinoff’s new Ātea editor Liam Rātana started in his role on Monday. On Thursday there were nationwide protests against government policies affecting Māori, as well as the release of the coalition government’s first budget. Rātana jumped straight in, writing a number of stories including a feature on the protests that looked more broadly at Māori activism and asked: Is protesting still the most effective way to bring about lasting change?
It’s a compelling read, presenting the views of those who favour different methods of lobbying, and is a strong indication of how Liam approaches his work – with a curious mind and an interest in hearing out all perspectives. Liam joins Madeleine Chapman on Behind the Story to talk te ao Māori reporting and his quest to develop more Māori print journalists. -
Wellington editor Joel MacManus appreciates that those we might not agree with can still make for an interesting and worthy story. Last weekend, he attended an anti-trans conference to hear speakers like Brian Tamaki, Posie Parker and NZ First MP Tanya Unkovich speak about the “dangers” of gender ideology. Joel’s feature was a chance to report on a culture war, rather than react to it, and prompted an intense response from the speakers themselves. Joel joins Madeleine Chapman on Behind the Story to talk about reporting in hostile environments and how to deal with feedback when it becomes abusive and personal.
For The Spinoff editor’s thoughts on the week that was, as well as a handpicked collection of the week’s best reads, subscribe to The Weekend with Madeleine Chapman newsletter at thespinoff.co.nz/newsletters - Показать больше