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.

Danyl McLauchlan’s annual awards for political bravery & buffoonery

Who deserves the top gongs in the Listener’s 2025 political awards?

Greg Dixon’s Another Kind of Politics: Willis to defend Heartless Tory Finance Minister title in “Grumble in the Jungle”

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

How do I feel as one of those impacted by the Manage My Health hack? Shocked, angry and a whole lot more cynical

The MMH cyber-attack may leave those impacted vulnerable to identity theft and bank fraud.

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?

Aaron Smale: As Nicola Willis struggles to balance the books, the environment pays the price

The government's contempt for the environment inspires growth, but not as we know it.

Could this be New Zealand's next big sport?

A growing international sport we’re actually quite good at could do with wider exposure.

Top-town Tim: A farewell to proudly parochial mayor Tim Shadbolt

As Tim Shadbolt's funeral takes place, Redmer Yska reflects on a colourful life well lived

A very forgettable country: Why is NZ missing from so many world maps?

NZ's absence from world maps is a veritable phenomenon.

Listener weekly quiz: January 14

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

The Listener’s annual sports quiz

How many sporting moments from 2025 can you recall?

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.

Still safe to eat? Questions about growing amount of imported frozen vegetables answered

Frozen vegetables are increasingly being packaged in NZ using imported ingredients.

Peter Griffin: The risky business of private health data online

Digital health isn’t a luxury any more, it’s an essential part of modern medicine.

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.

Steve Braunias: My six mostly unrealistic New Year’s Resolutions

Quitter's Day was last week, meaning many have now abandoned their New Year resolutions.

The Good Life: The measurement of happiness

Taking pleasure in the simple things during the summer break.

Young composer Justin Villaflores brings new sounds to Western ears

Villaflores aims to diversity "sonic palettes".

Musical chemistry: Cellist Martin Smith joins a Kiwi cultural institution

Smith is a new addition to the NZ String Quartet in time for the Adam festival.

Top seed: Nick Cave’s musical mate Warren Ellis

A mad chat with Ellis, who almost died in NZ just as he started life as a Bad Seed.

The year in classical music

Richard Betts on the year's best concerts and albums.

A Clockwork Orange meets Jimmy Saville in Danny Boyle’s horrifying new zombie sequel – five stars

Second of the 28 Years Later trilogy is the most thrilling cinematic experience of 2026.

The TV year ahead: Nine NZ shows to watch out for in 2026

It's shaping up as a promising year for local TV, even if Shorty remains on life support.

Video Q&A with Don McGlashan: “My yacht doesn’t actually have an anchor”

Some supplementary questions for the songwriter in the wake of the doco about his life.

Songwriter Don McGlashan looks back at his life in insightful doco

Anchor Me: Engaging, informative and entertaining look at a national treasure.

Short story: The witching hour by Melanie Kwang

This year's theme in our summer collection of short stories is distraction.

Short story: Base patrol by John Summers

Distraction is the theme in our summer collection of short stories.

You are definitely not here: YouTube’s Map Men on modern navigation, charting a new course and the joy of getting lost

Paper maps are fading into obscurity as we turn to GPS, but both can lead us astray.

A very forgettable country: Why is NZ missing from so many world maps?

NZ's absence from world maps is a veritable phenomenon.

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.

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.

Lives in a holding pattern: Syrian refugees face going home to renewed violence and a devastated economy

Those who fled civil war are increasingly unwelcome in the countries that took them in.

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