Kiwi Yarns

Kiwi Yarns

Welcome to Kiwi Yarns - those yarns you have where you sit down, put the kettle on, pour a whiskey or crack open a beer I honestly don‘t mind. Anyway! We‘re sitting down and we’re yarning to some great New Zealanders, their back stories, their front stories, even stories where they went sideways, we will go there. It’s a place where we celebrate the great people of this glorious nation.

Episodes

The Best of 2025

December 28, 2025 • 101 mins
What a year it’s been. A huge thank you to all our incredible guests for joining us and sharing their stories. The kōrero throughout 2025 has been raw, real, uplifting, entertaining and inspiring. In this bonus Best of episode, we revisit some of our favourite moments from the past year, featuring Samantha Hayes, Matt Watson, Tami Neilson, Eru Kapa-Kingi, Martin Guptill, Sara Qasem, Jo Kane, Russel Norman, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe...
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How do we explain 2025? Stuff’s Explainer Editor Lloyd Burr is here to, well, explain. Plus brioche buns, niche quiche and being 'unclaimed treasure'

December 21, 2025 • 76 mins
For the final episode of the year, I thought it fitting to invite someone whose job is literally to explain things, and ask him to put it all into context. Not all of it is good news, but it’s important we reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly in this tumultuous world. Fear not, though - award-winning journalist, good friend and Stuff’s Explainer Editor Lloyd Burr joins me for plenty of laughs, a dose of therapy, some wisdom ...
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How three days at business school saw Ella Monnery become one of New Zealand’s biggest singing voices - and how she’s overcoming self-doubt in her solo era

December 14, 2025 • 66 mins
Ella Monnery is the voice of Christmas in the Park, belts out bangers at Synthony, and takes the main stage at Rhythm and Vines — but it’s only this year that she has focused on her solo career. With the support of her partner - producer and rapper Kings - she’s stepping confidently into a new phase. From The Voice Australia to a nine-month cruise-ship contract, Ella has always been singing - and loving it. But challenges remain, ...
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Can you imagine playing George Washington 700 times in one of the world’s biggest musicals? Matu Ngaropo tells all about Hamilton (the musical, not the town)

December 7, 2025 • 74 mins
The aura of Matu Ngaropo hits you straight away, which is why it’s easy to see how he’s one of those performers who can do it all - and do it all well. Matu works across film, television, and theatre. He took on one of the biggest roles of his career when he landed the part of George Washington in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, performing across Australia and New Zealand an astonishing 700 times. We geek out over what it takes to...
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Niki Bezzant on 'menowashing', ageism, and her mission to empower midlife women to become vibrant, kick-arse old ladies

November 30, 2025 • 61 mins
Niki Bezzant never set out to become New Zealand’s “menopause woman”, but the journalist, author, and speaker is really leaning into that title now. It was the Healthy Food Guide founding editor’s own experiences that made her realise how little support there was for women. Today we cut through the bullshit and hear how brilliant Niki is at helping us understand hormones, health, and happiness in menopause, midlife, and beyond (w...
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Nude Paul, Yacht Paul, Gin Paul, The Chase Paul, Breakfast Paul, Palm Springs Paul: Get to know who Paul Henry really is

November 23, 2025 • 102 mins
Almost everyone has an opinion on Paul Henry. Good or bad, people have certainly made up their minds about one of the country’s best-known broadcasters. But should we pump the brakes on always thinking about his time on Breakfast? Is there more to Paul Henry than those controversial one-liners from way back when? The new The Chase New Zealand host sits down to chat about all the other things that make up Paul Henry. Your mind ma...
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Claire Turnbull on burnout, food battles and taking back control of our brains (aka GET OFF YOUR SCREENS!)

November 16, 2025 • 81 mins
Claire Turnbull is a nutritionist, best-selling author and professional well-being speaker. What makes Claire so powerful is her lived experience. This isn’t some self-proclaimed “guru” pushing an agenda - Claire cuts through the shit and tells it like it is. She cares because she’s been through it too: navigating disordered eating, dyslexia, depression, anxiety, postnatal psychosis, a brain injury, and now parenting a neurodiver...
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From 'useless' to unstoppable: René Heyde’s remarkable journey from trauma to Commonwealth Games glory - and beyond

November 9, 2025 • 52 mins
René Heyde left his 14th school in Year 12 after a teacher told him he was “useless”. He wasn’t. He was a kid surviving a traumatic childhood, just trying to find his way. A few years later, after a chance ride through the streets of Christchurch, René was wearing a New Zealand jersey at the 1974 Commonwealth Games - and bringing home a bronze medal. At the closing ceremony, he and a team-mate even stopped the Queen’s Land Rover ...
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Portia Woodman-Wickliffe on RWC heartbreak, why the Black Ferns are so special, and what life after rugby might hold - from hairdressing to midwifery and babies

November 2, 2025 • 67 mins
She never set out to be the greatest rugby player of all time - she was just a little girl who loved sport. We’re lucky that girl was Portia Woodman-Wickliffe - a trailblazer for women’s rugby here in Aotearoa and across the world. At 34, she’s the top try-scorer in New Zealand rugby history, but that’s never been her “why”. We talk equality in sport, media coverage (or lack of it), and the future of the game - plus Barbies, bab...
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How Lisette Reymer became an accidental war correspondent

October 26, 2025 • 69 mins
Award-winning journalist Lisette Reymer is Stuff’s senior correspondent and author of No, I Don’t Get Danger Money. Lisette spent three years as Newshub’s Europe Correspondent - and it’s fair to say what she witnessed and covered during that time is almost hard to comprehend. Eight trips to Ukraine during the war, Donald Trump’s indictment, the October 7 attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, the Queen’s death, the Tokyo O...
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Teacher and writer Sara Qasem on being Palestinian and living with grief after losing her father in the March 15 terror attacks

October 19, 2025 • 92 mins
Sara Qasem is a Palestinian teacher and writer who immigrated to Aotearoa at a young age and is now based in Ōtautahi. In 2019, Sara lost her father, Abdelfattah, who was killed at the Al Noor Mosque by an Australian far-right terrorist who opened fire on two mosques in Christchurch - killing 51 people and injuring dozens more. Through spoken word poetry, Sara advocates for and raises awareness of the Palestinian people. Her sto...
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Veteran activist Tāme Iti on racism, te reo Māori, protesting, and how art saved his life

October 12, 2025 • 87 mins
For more than five decades, Tāme Iti has been at the forefront of the pursuit of Māori rights in Aotearoa. From being silenced from speaking te reo as a child, to finding strength in protest and tackling challenges head-on in remarkable ways, he has never stopped questioning the status quo. Tāme is as well known and respected for his art as for his activism, and says the former saved his life and played a vital role in his healin...
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Jon Bridges on the rising distrust in the media, being a middle-aged man in lycra, and the correct use of an apostrophe

October 5, 2025 • 77 mins
I hope Jon Bridges takes this the right way when he reads it - he’s genuinely one of the good guys in New Zealand media. With a television career spanning more than three decades, the comedian-turned-producer of some of the country’s biggest shows says it’s largely down to him saying “yes” to the jobs people ask him to do. And who in the Gen-X/elder millennial age bracket could forget Bridges’ luscious locks on Ice TV in the late...
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Rebecca Nelson: from street busking to singing for King Charles and being shoulder-tapped by the Navy - and the All Black who thought she was miming

September 28, 2025 • 51 mins
Today’s guest shares an incredible story of never giving up on what you love. Rebecca Nelson is practically on speaking terms with King Charles, having wowed him with her singing voice five times. Most of her gigs - from performing the national anthem at Gallipoli to entertaining a sell-out, rugby-mad crowd at Twickenham - grew out of her time busking on the streets. Rebecca now serves in the Royal New Zealand Navy and is the fo...
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Slingshot founder Annette Presley on helping young women, ambition, Telecom battles and the cost of success

September 21, 2025 • 59 mins
This week, we meet tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Annette Presley. Annette started her first business at 24, co-founded one of New Zealand’s earliest internet providers, Slingshot, took on Telecom in the early 2000s (and won), and was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and women. Her latest mission? To support women and children through health, education, leadership, and wellbeing pro...
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Matt Watson’s painful epiphany that changed the course of his career - and what he’d do to overhaul New Zealand’s commercial fishing industry

September 14, 2025 • 86 mins
Today’s guest is probably the most famous fisherman in all of Aotearoa. Matt Watson only ever wanted to fish, and the kid who used to drag his dinghy up a steep boat ramp for the hour-long walk home has turned his passion into a remarkable career. Matt is such a brilliant storyteller that you’ll be hooked on this one (see what I did there). But truly - what a guy!
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Dame Jacinda Ardern on leadership, religion, kindness, the state of the world, and Rhythm and Vines

September 7, 2025 • 57 mins
It's taken seven years of asking (I'm very patient), but I finally get to sit down with our 40th Prime Minister, Dame Jacinda Ardern. She's beaming in from the other side of the world, but we manage to squeeze in just under an hour to discuss her book, A Different Kind of Power, which is enjoying success across the globe. We discuss her leadership and having no regrets about departing when she did. Jacinda shares her insights in...
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Meet Val Smith – New Zealand’s most-capped athlete and two-time lawn bowls world champion

August 31, 2025 • 73 mins
When you talk about (or even Google) celebrated athletes in this country, rugby players usually come up first. But I want you to meet New Zealand’s most-capped athlete, who has played an astonishing 667 international matches for her country. She is Val Smith, one of New Zealand’s most successful lawn bowls athletes. She’s a two-time world champion and has another nine world championship medals to her name. She’s also one of the ...
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Trailblazing drum and bass artist MC Tali on how her fighting spirit drives her past all the people who say no: 'Proving people wrong has always been satisfying'

August 24, 2025 • 76 mins
This week, we're with the trailblazing drum and bass star, award-winning vocalist, MC, producer, composer, music mentor and author - MC Tali, aka Natalia Sheppard. The girl from rural Taranaki became Aotearoa’s - and one of the world’s - first drum and bass MCs, despite coming up against an industry and people who told her she couldn’t. We will probably all learn a thing or two about how hard it is to MC a live gig! Tali is an ab...
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Dame Julie Christie: 37 years of TV, from reality shows to documentaries, and the power of never taking ‘no’ for an answer

August 17, 2025 • 84 mins
Dame Julie Christie remembers the first show she made back in 1988 as if it were yesterday. Her passion for making television is just as strong 300-odd shows later. Her eyes nearly roll to the back of her head when we mention the title "reality TV queen" that’s often thrown around to describe her, but there’s no denying Dame Julie was a global leader in the genre. We discuss the decline of television and what she thinks New Zeala...
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