In the Loop

Today’s episode carries a trigger warning for serious sexual assault, drugging, and significant traumatic experiences. Given the distressing matter discussed, this content is for adults only. This is an important subject but we urge listener discretion. 

In late 2017 Sophie Brown, then 19, was of hundreds of young people regularly partying at the Mama Hooch bar. Naive to the club’s dark underbelly until she was drugged and sexually...

Over the weekend Kellie-jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, arrived in Aotearoa for her Let Women Speak tour.  The British activist widely labelled as anti-transgender and self-described as a women’s rights activist, caused a stir before she even stepped on Kiwi soil. Her talks had already been met with large protests across the ditch, and at her Melbourne rally, more than 20 neo-Nazi's did a Hitler salute on the steps o...

Modern dating can be a minefield and navigating sex with a new person can make things even more nerve-wrecking. A recent Bumble survey found 39 per cent of Kiwi singles admit to feeling inexperienced in the bedroom which impacts their self-confidence. Today on the Herald’s In the Loop podcast, Bumble’s resident sexologist Chantelle Otten speaks to hosts Cheree Kinnear and Katie Harris about attraction, chemistry and how to gain con...

A week after Cheree and her partner gifted a little red box containing two tiny booties to her parents, she was lying in a hospital bed learning she had just lost her baby. Today Cheree speaks about her heartbreak after miscarrying late last year, and why she believes we need to be more open about pregnancy loss. 

This episode focuses heavily on miscarriage so please take care while listening.

In this special (early release!) episode of In the Loop, Katie chats to her sister Laura and her friend Nicky about all things polyamory. Laura is in a long-term relationship with two other women, and Nicky is also polyamorous but is not in a committed relationship right now. The pair share their feelings on monogamy, jealousy, what it's like being in love with more than one person and why they chose polyamory. We loved this ep, es...

Today, Cheree and Katie sit down with a former Calendar Girls worker Alice* to speak about the collective contract negotiations that they claim resulted in 19 women getting dropped. She also speaks about wider issues in the industry and what they would like to see change. 

*Alice's name has been changed to protect her privacy. 

Calendar Girls claimed in a statement it had not changed its private dancer cost for 12 years. “In hindsi...

Lip flips, buccal fat removal, and baby botox are all in a minutes scrolling on social media these days. Whether it’s on your favourite celebrity, colleague, or even your mother, the latest cosmetic procedures have become the topic du jour for many Sunday brunches. Sarah Hart, an Auckland-based cosmetic medicine doctor has seen beauty trends come and go for decades. She speaks to In the Loop about social media trends, what actually...

Redundancies, contract disputes and personal grievances are always in the headlines, but what’s it really like for the lawyers at the coal face? Today In the Loop host Katie Harris chats to senior solicitor Lizzie Thomas about contracts, non-compete clauses and the common cases that come across her desk. In the episode the pair discuss the importance of thoroughly reading employment contracts, common mistakes people make when signi...

Bella Howarth, 22, didn’t exactly fall into social media fame. While TikTok was never a specific ambition, from age 12 Howarth knew she wanted to make videos.“I was trying to be like a vlogger, like Zoella, I think my handle [on YouTube] was Dorkabella.”While her YouTube career wasn’t meant to be, and she has now scraped all evidence from the internet, she’s now found success on the video-sharing app TikTok. Speaking to the Herald’...

It’s infiltrated your group chat, is filling up your TikTok feed and already being made into a six-part series. No, this not the latest Kardashian reality season, it’s the gritty, gruesome reality of our true crime addiction. On today’s episode of In the Loop, hosts Cheree Kinnear and Katie Harris chat to crime reporter and author Jared Savage about why people are so attracted to stories about others’ darkest moments. 

WARNING: Thi...

Selling sex, intimacy and acceptance, Wellington sex worker Cleo takes Katie Harris and Cheree Kinnear inside their life as a non-binary high-end Wellington escort. On this deep dive episode, we discuss what Cleo's day to day is like, how they got into sex work and how being non-binary helps them support clients discovering their own identity. We found this chat really insightful and hope you do too!

This episode was recorded earli...

Once a year since J* was 14 she would try insert a tampon. The Wellington woman, who wants to be known by her initial J, attempted the annual ritual without success for years, hoping that maybe one day it would finally work. What J didn't know at the time was that she has vaginismus, a medical condition where the vagina tightens up when you try insert something into it. Today on the show J chats to Cheree and Katie about the condit...

A West Auckland cop who left the force earlier this year says gun violence is becoming the "norm" and some officers' anxiety is going "through the roof".
The former officer, who was only on the force for four years, joined Katie and Cheree to discuss why he left the force and the realities of life on the frontlines.

This episode was recorded earlier this year and is being rereleased over summer. 

For more on the story Katie ...

Endometriosis affects roughly one in 10 women, and those with a uterus, in Aotearoa. For this month's Deep Dive, Katie talks with Sophie Sager, a writer who has been open about her struggles to get a diagnosis for endometriosis and wants to draw more attention to the condition and the difficulties to get it taken seriously.

This episode was recorded earlier this year and is being rereleased over summer. 

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Michaela and Zach Cotogni, who live in the Wellington region, are well-known in the magic mushroom community, and are the minds behind the book Blue Honey, which documents the experience of Kiwis using mushrooms containing psilocybin. On this Deep Dive episode the pair discuss how their lives have been changed by the substance, why they decided to speak about their magic mushroom use and what their hopes are for the law in New Zeal...

Indonesia has long been hailed as a tropical paradise by Kiwi travelers.Cheap airfares, friendly locals and well-priced accommodation is enough to lure many out of their winter hibernation. But a revised criminal code, which includes a law labelled by some as a “bonk ban”, could make the classic Bali getaway far less alluring for New Zealanders. Especially the unmarried ones. On this week’s podcast, hosts Cheree Kinnear and Katie H...

Parents refusing to use vaccinated blood for their gravely ill baby have said they are desperate for their child to be operated on, but claim they need “safe blood”. Today on the Herald’s In the Loop podcasts co-hosts Katie Harris and Aaron Dahmen unpack the case and what experts believe. Later in the episode the review into the death of five-year-old Malachi Subecz (6.45), what Kiwis really think about 16-year-olds voting (13.10),...