New Zealand Listener

New Zealand Listener is the country’s most respected general interest magazine, bringing you a wide variety of news, stories, columns, reviews, plus TV listings, every week.

New Zealand Listener

Gods of the machines • Warnings from tech bros about the products they make are self-serving, and companies must not be left to police themselves, writes AERYN DUNMORE.

Would the real MMP please stand up

THE POLITICAL CARTOON

“Quote Marks”

10 Quick Questions

Bright Lines

Fade to grey • The purple vote is slowly sinking as an irritated electorate once again casts around for better ideas and genuine representation.

A turn up for the books

Highway robbery

Journalist’s privilege

Spring flings

New uses for old streets

Cheap & cheerful • Consuming less is proving popular as the frugal ways of our grandparents swing back into fashion. And it goes beyond belt-tightening in a cost-of-living crisis.

A Stitch In Time • Make do and mend is resurging as old hands pass on simple sewing skills to a new generation.

A fistful of dollars • From health and education to baby bonuses and boy racers: concluding our two-part series, DANYL McLAUCHLAN looks at what the parties are offering – from big and small to, er, noisy.

Pulling right • After three combative years in coalition, Act’s leader thinks the state is run by ministers who don’t read their papers. His fix is fewer of them, with more power.

Thinking about thinking • From 2029, philosophy will be taught to school kids. What can we all learn from a discipline long considered dry and academic?

Under the veil • Nostalgia for the old days has a nasty edge in Catherine Chidgey’s latest, which explores the notion of the ‘body beautiful’ and its harsh consequences.

Dog days • Bonnie Garmus follows up her debut hit with another page-turner about a battler in an unforgiving world.

Short cuts

Forward into the past • A long-promised sequel to a 2003 hit has readers caught up in a colourful, complex time-travel epic.

Eyes on the prize • Intricate spy thriller from a former CIA officer examining the tensions between American and British intelligence.

Inspired by nature • Ann Packer checks out the latest picture books for kids.

Indomitable snowman • A new biopic of Sherpa Tenzing Norgay replicates the conquest of Everest in the Southern Alps.

Finding his religion • Stuart McKenzie’s latest play uses real conversations to riff on faith, philosophy and the faultlines of belief.

Testament to youth • First-time feature director Paloma Schneideman delivers a classic Kiwi coming-of-age movie.

Soul searching • Louis Baker gets serious on sophisticated second album.

Swimming with sharks • A local natural history documentary takes a deep dive to look at why mako shark numbers are on the rise in New Zealand waters after years of decline.

TV Picks of the week

TV Films

Elgar’s dream • The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra performs the mighty Gerontius, with tenor Jared Holt in the lead.

Movement for the people • Research into ways of stimulating spinal cord regeneration is offering ‘wheelies’ new hope.

Health briefs

Sweet spot • Author of The Very Hungry Coeliac, Melanie Persson, turns classics gluten-free.

Singles night • Try these top-of-the-range drops that come with the signature character of their terroir.

All at sea • El Niño may blow in a summer of scarcity for our seabirds.

Special effects • If a superhero were standing nearby, would it make you more likely to think of others’ needs?

Nearly All The Way With Lbj

Salute to the old ways