Episode summary: When Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt were promoting The 99% Invisible City in late 2020, one question came up over and over again in conversations and interviews about our built environment: in what ways will the COVID pandemic change cities long term? Realistically, it’s hard to answ...

There’s more ➢

Episode summary: Why are so few intellectuals comfortable with life out on a limb?

Episode summary: Otherworldly encounters with a painting that comes to life, a surprise connection and a magical summoning… Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures inspired by the surreal worlds of the artist and writer Leonora Carrington, a decade on from her death. Leonora Car...

There’s more ➢

Episode summary: In his teens, “Gangsta for life” was the signature war-cry sung by one of George’s favourite singers - Mavado. But after Mavado’s epic clash with rival, Vybz Kartel, George saw the line as a mentality…one that had empowered and terrorised Jamaicans for decades. Music, money and murd...

There’s more ➢

Episode summary: “The phone rang and rang and a lady picked up on the other end and I still remember the operator saying, ‘You have a collect call from Ian for Debbie. Will you accept the charges?’ And I remember Debbie saying, ‘Yes, I accept.’ And I just remember blurting out, ‘Ms. Baigrie, I just...

There’s more ➢

Episode summary: “Country roads, take me home To the place I belong” Written by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert with and for their friend John Denver, the song went on to be covered by Ray Charles, Toots and the Maytals, Olivia Newton John and many more. A song about the longing for home and the desire...

There’s more ➢

Episode summary: The arrival of Europeans in NZ kicked off a trade in Mokomokai — tattooed heads but these colonial souvenirs have their own complex history.

Episode summary: Officially titled The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food, it was often known simply as “Kniga” (translated: “book”) because it was one of the only cookbooks to exist in the Soviet Union. The volume is peppered with glossy photographs of really lavish spreads and packed with text as well...

There’s more ➢

Episode summary: Lionel Shriver discusses the complexities of life and the politics of death in her darkly funny new novel Should We Stay or Should We Go? at 5x15. Lionel Shriver was christened ‘the Cassandra of American letters’ by the New York Times in recognition of her writing’s unerring prescie...

There’s more ➢

Episode summary: What can the planet’s oldest plants teach us about our humanity and our place in the world? In this special 5x15 podcast, journalist Lucy Jones, author of the best-selling book Losing Eden, is joined by acclaimed thinker, writer and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the...

There’s more ➢