Danyl McLauchlan: Between austerity and orthodoxy, NZ’s left goes quiet

A stoush between competing economic theories is doing little to help balance NZ's books.

Chris Slane’s cartoon of the week

Chris Slane returns for 2026, sharing his perspective on politics.

The Listener 2025 collection: Our most popular stories on politics and the politics of modern life

Ten feature stories which reflect the politics of life in NZ today.

Greg Dixon’s Another Kind of Politics: The 2025 Drunken Muldoon Awards

Greg Dixon runs a satirical eye over the year in local and international politics.

Russell Brown: With the world burning, New Years Day seems like a long time ago

Getting tickets for Ladi6’s New Year’s Eve House Party was the right call.

Trump and Greenland: Liberal democracies need to wake up and smell the gunpowder

What is Europe's role in this new, brutish era?

Simon Wilson joins the Listener with new urban ideals column

The first instalment of Simon Wilson's exclusive new column looks for hope in our towns.

How the Maduro indictment exposes global differences in criminal justice

Nicolás Maduro arrest revives one of the most controversial cases in US legal history.

Where there's a wool: Corporate high-flyer becomes big player on sock market

Tim Deane's late start to the business hasn't held him back from making wool cool again.

We’re in this new era of kākāpō conservation: What a boom breeding season will mean for our native parrot

The kākāpō is on track for an excellent breeding season.

Listener weekly quiz: January 21

Test your general knowledge with the Listener’s weekly quiz.

The other side of family harm: Child to parent violence - when kids strike out

Parents of children who turn violent have nowhere to turn under a system in denial.

Are ultra-processed soft foods stopping your mouth from getting a workout?

Our mouths play an essential role in digestion, but UPFs are making it too easy for them.

Hope is at hand for women suffering from a common post-menopausal symptom

Gone are the days when people didn't talk about menopause, but one change remains taboo.

A whole lot of pain: Why 135,000 Kiwis are still living with untreated gout

Gout is a serious form of arthritis yet stigma around it stops sufferers from getting help

Can rats play video games? A ongoing study says yes

The 1990s game, Doom, has attracted some unusual players.

The Good Life: Hazards of country life

A New Year's Honours snub and musings on being a tradwife is the latest at Lush Places.

Meatless morsels: Three vibrant recipes from UK food writer Yasmin Khan

Yasmin Khan returns to her Middle Eastern roots for her latest book of vegetarian recipes.

Weekend wine guide: There’s more to the Central Otago mix than pinot

The high-flying Te Kano Estate has a diverse portfolio.

Strangely Normal's Claire Dutton on favourite memories, treasured possessions and the skills she wishes she had

Co-founder of legendary brand Strangely Normal, Claire Dutton has an eye for distinction.

Beyond Dodi: The Crown star Khalid Abdalla on acting, activism, politics and performance

Theatre maker Khalid Abdalla on finding optimism in the face of crisis.

Your A-Z guide to NZ’s year in culture: The festivals, explosive exhibitions and x-rated shows you need to see

The best in live music, theatre, opera and dance coming this way in 2026.

Strings detached: Kiwi classical guitarist’s electronic pluck

Matthew Marshall: "The world does not need another guitarist who can play Spanish music.”

The great art heist? A First XI of exhibitions we’d like to see at Te Papa

Could these exhibitions allow Te Papa to show New Zealanders more of our great art?

Review: The stark and fractured beauty of Dry Cleaning’s ‘Secret Love’

British post-punk quartet deliver what might be its defining album.

From sing-song to ping-pong: Timothée Chalamet’s supreme performance as self-serving table tennis champ

Marty Supreme might get actor the Oscar he missed for playing Bob Dylan.

Listener’s Songs of the Week: Gorillaz, Six60, Sleaford Mods with Aldous Harding and more

New and intriguing tracks selected by Listener music writers.

The Listener’s 20 most-anticipated international TV shows of the year

Our picks of the big shows coming to a TV screen near you via streamers and broadcasters.

Book of the day: The Intelligence Intellectuals - Social scientists and the Making of the CIA

How academics transformed the CIA from a Cold War embarrassment and gave the US an edge.

Vice, far and wide: The month’s best thriller and crime books

2026 kicks off with page turners set in the King Country, Aussie beach towns & the Arctic.

Lease of life: New book asks what's the point of old people anyway?

An exhaustive look at human societies through history concludes old age is nothing new.

Top 10 bestselling NZ books: January 17

The local books we've been buying this week.

Milk, Madness and Mayhem: The Ruahine Triple Axe Murders

Was it an act of temporary, alcohol-induced madness? Or plain bloody murder?

The Listener 2025 collection: Our most popular crime writing

From contemporary court cases to historic murders, 2025's best read crime stories.

Steve Braunias on the sentencing of the mother responsible for the ‘suitcase murders’

Mercy for Hakyung Lee was bartered for at sentencing.

Foreigner, bigamist, killer: The wild life and dubious conviction of a colonial double murderer

Faced with a double murder that rocked colonial NZ, police were quick to find a suspect.

Trump and Greenland: Liberal democracies need to wake up and smell the gunpowder

What is Europe's role in this new, brutish era?

2025, the UK’s warmest year on record, brings a sense of climate displacement

Between New Zealand and the UK, where would you rather be?

Through the lens: 2025 remembered in pictures

Images from a year in which havoc ensued but we still found light relief.

Pauline Hanson’s resurgence is an indication of deeper threats in Australia

Pauline Hanson continues to cash in on anti-migrant and anti-net-zero populism.

Last chance to subscribe to listener.co.nz in our Black Friday special

Special Black Friday offer

See the world anew when science, art and nature converge in Te Papa’s Breathe | Mauri Ora

Te Papa’s new experience is at the cutting edge of technology and immersive art practice.

This Titirangi home was transformed into a functional family home

A mid-century Auckland home is reconfigured to make it more functional for a young family

This contemporary Redcliffs home maximises its view of the estuary

A home on a Christchurch estuary provides its owner with an outlook that’s always changing