The Detail
Join The Detail team six days a week as they make sense of the big stories with the country’s best journalists and experts.
Episodes
We've failed to reach our smokefree obligations, but has New Zealand done well enough to relax our efforts?
New Zealand was once a world leader in getting people to give up cigarettes, but we seem to have pulled up the brakes
Guests:
- Chris Bullen - University of Auckland public health professor
- Anaru Waa - University of Otago professor
- Jasmine Graham - Hāpai te Hauora general manager
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The West Coast has long been mining country, but a proposed expansion of coal mining operations - and the backlash - leaves the region's economy and ecology uncertain
A proposal to expand mining operations on the Denniston Plateau pits the economy against ecology, leaving the Government facing a high-stakes decision
Guests:
- Fox Meyer - Newsroom political reporter
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As the cost of insurance rises, Consumer NZ sees worrying signs that more people are dropping their house insurance
From house insurance to health insurance, mortgage to pet to funeral, the list of what can be insured seems to be growing. Insurance experts list the ones you can cancel.
Guests:
- Rebecca Styles - Consumer NZ head of investigations
- Bianca Russell - North Shore office manager
- Chris Walsh - MoneyHub founder
Learn More...
Unions who won an employment case for four Uber drivers in three different courts could find the ruling short-lived, with the introduction of new legislation
An expert in employment law says new legislation will override a Supreme Court ruling, but that bill is full of holes - and will itself end up being tested in the courts
Guests:
- Simon Schofield - University of Auckland professional teaching fellow
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Psychological tricks and traps using deceptive website design techniques are starting to overwhelm online shopping.
What's being termed 'dark patterns' are becoming increasingly prevalent on shopping websites as online businesses scramble for your dollars
Guests:
- Chris Shulz - Consumer NZ senior investigative journalist
- Alex Sims - University of Auckland commercial law professor
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Two big political memoirs have hit the bookshops this year - but which high profile politicians are missing from the shelves
From memoirs to biographies; autobiographies - both authorised and unauthorised - to the mid-career manifesto, the documented lives of politicians come in many forms
Guests:
- Tim Murphy - Newsroom co-editor
- Jim McAloon - Victoria University professor of political history
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A surprise reversal on high beef tariffs has been a welcome relief for farmers, but with Trump in the White House, celebrations are muted
U.S President Donald Trump no longer has beef with some Kiwi exports, but others are still stuck paying a high price - and an economist warns it's anyone's guess how long the relief will last
Guests:
- Brad Olsen - New Zealand economist
- Kate Acland - Beef and Lamb New Zealand chair and ...
Kākāpō numbers are recovering at such a rate that we are running out of pest-free islands to put them on
2026 could be the year that the kākāpō breeding programme takes such a big leap forward that conservationists can finally take a step back
Guests:
- Alison Ballance - Kākāpō Files
Learn More:
- Read DoC's blog on the 2026 mast season
- Learn about Auckland Zoo's kākāpō programme
Government pressed for action as scandal over police handling of McSkimming complaints sparks national reckoning
A week after a bombshell IPCA report raised allegations of high-level cover-ups and triggered accusations of corruption, the fallout continues to grow, with public trust in our Police in the spotlight
Guests:
- Jared Savage - New Zealand Herald's senior investigative journalist
- Sam Sachdeva - Newsroom national affairs...
Sexual exploitation of children is seen as one of the worst crimes out there - but do the prison terms reflect the severity?
An advocacy organisation says it receives calls from people covertly asking for help to avoid offending - but despite evidence that programmes work, resources to help are thin
Guests:
Type 1 diabetes used to be called 'juvenile diabetes', and Type 2 affected adults. But that's no longer the case, and the number of kids with Type 2 in New Zealand is rising.
A specialist in treating childhood diabetes says that some children are born "almost what we call 'programmed'" to have the disease - but new medicine could help put them in remission
Guests:
- Dr Craig Jefferies - Paediatric Endocrin...
For years, a father has been fighting for Waka Kotahi to do more about the dangers of a vehicle braking system involved in his son's death. Now a coroner's report backs him up, but NZTA still disagrees.
After a death on a construction site, a coroner's report has called a braking system found in some 70,000 vehicles around New Zealand "inherently unsafe". Waka Kotahi disagrees.
Guests:
- Louisa Cleave - Checkpoi...
Editing scandal at BBC sparks 'existential crisis' for public-service broadcaster and puts the spotlight on trust in journalism
From editing error to boardroom exit, how the BBC's reputation took a blow and what this means for global journalism
Guests:
- Jim Tully - Journalism educator and media commentator
- Sean Hogan - Freelance Correspondent in the UK
Learn More
- Read the BBC's own reporting on the events
- Re...
Space terrorism is no longer relegated to sci-fi movies: it's happening already, and one legal expert warns we're far from prepared
An attack on satellite can take modern life offline, affecting everything from basic communication to banking. But international law is lagging, and an expert warns we risk turning the final frontier into the next frontline.
Guests:
- Anna Marie Brennan - University of Waikato law lecturer
Learn mo...
As AI share prices soar, some economic doomsayers have started to ring the warning bells of a bubble risk
More and more, finance experts are predicting that the AI bubble is getting ready to pop - so what does that mean for Kiwi investors, and for our economy
Guests:
- Gyles Beckford - RNZ business editor
- Harry Smith - Fisher Funds global equity portfolio manager
- Leighton Roberts - Sharesies co-founder
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Ruapehu District's mayor says the huge fire still burning in the region could have the same effect on the local economy as the 1996 eruption
In Tongariro, locals pin their hopes on rain to put out a massive blaze, so their summer incomes don't get burnt with the region's vegetation
Guests:
- Nick Singers - Technical Advisor for Project Tongariro
- Jimmy Ellingham - RNZ reporter
- Weston Kirton - Ruapehu District mayor
In a country swamped by disinformation, two entrepreneurs have come up with solutions to tackle the problem, on and offline
For Taiwan, the threat of Chinese military invasion is less pressing than an invasion many see as ongoing - an onslaught of disinformation
Guests:
- Mark Hanson - co-founder of White Fungus arts magazine
- Ron Hanson - editor of White Fungus
- Billion Lee - co-founder CoFact
- Jason Liu - investigative journalist
The Detail's Sharon Brettkelly visits Jordan, where the tourism industry propping up the country's economy has been all but decimated by the war in neighbouring Israel
Jordan doesn't have the oil that's made its neighbours wealthy, and tourism industry propping up its economy is under immense pressure
Guests:
- Hashem Nawafleh - tour guide
- Hamad Hamad al Manajih - Bedouin tour guide
- Omar Al-Hlalat - horse guide
This nasty pest can be destroyed, but it will take government resources and extreme vigilance from the public to do it.
The anti-pest army is being mobilised, local Facebook pages are buzzing and a swarm of publicity embarked upon, all aimed at stamping out the yellow-legged hornet
Guests:
- Professor Phil Lester - Victoria University
- Mike Inglis - MPI Biosecurity Commissioner North
- Karin Kos - Apiculture NZ chief executive
...
A key player in the curriculum rewrite says the criticism is overblown - and not a reflection of what the sector thinks
Many agree NZ's education is below par, but how to fix it is the subject of a major conflict - as the government's proposed curriculum has made clear
Guests:
- Laura Walters - Newsroom's political editor
- Michael Johnston - The New Zealand Initiative
Learn more:
- Draft curriculum content re...
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