RNZ: Nights

Christian Smith dials in from London with news of a chasm between Hungary and the rest of the European Union.

Colin Peacock joins Emile Donovan to debrief the week in media news including the response to the Middle East conflict.

University of Canterbury associate sociology professor Dr Mike Grimshaw discusses what problems this will solve.

One of the biggest winners at this year's Academy Awards wasn't a rising star, or a veteran filmmaker finally getting their due . . . It was horror, so is it time to take the genre seriously.

Butter is a simple food. So why is the appearance of American butter - both on our supermarket shelves and the product itself - causing such a stir? But if it's practically the same thing, why the difference? We thought it was a question worth getting to the bottom of, and who better to ask than Mr DairymanNZ himself, Craig Hickman.

Shower Thoughts -- this is where we find an expert to answer your curious questions about the world and how it works. And tonight, we're prying open the doors of parliament to ask how do you ask and get a question answered in parliament.  Joining Emile to explain it all are MPs Chris Penk and Chlöe Swarbrick.

British musician John Otway has played over five thousand gigs and has had two hit records. Known for his self-effacing humour, John has just arrived in New Zealand - the first time he's been here with full band in tow. He speaks to Emile.

Josh Wineera is a defence and industrial strategist and previously a Massey University lecturer on regular warfare. He speaks to Emile Donovan.

Are phones really keeping our teens up late at night? That's a question keeping our next guest, Otago University Health Sciences Professor Rachael Taylor, up late tonight. She joins Emile Donovan to talk digital devices in bed and the problems at play for still developing teenagers, who're up scrolling, or gaming, rather than sleeping.

The latest sports news from here, including wins for The Warriors, Hurricanes and Phoenix, plus the Black Caps head to Australia for a four-test series.

It's a Monday night, which means it's time to dive into history with Nights' resident historian, Emma Kay. Emma runs Small Histories of New Zealand, digging up curious stories, quirky articles, and forgotten treasures from our past. 

Monstera is just the latest in a line of species - about 20 new ones every year - that escape and often wreak havoc on our fragile ecosystems.  

The ongoing Middle East conflict could be a long and costly economic problem - yet the Covid Inquiry warned about economic overstimulation in times of crisis. Currently, Treasury's worst-case economic impact from the conflict and fuel price surges is 3.7 per cent inflation. Liam Dann, Business Editor at Large for the Herald, says this is optimistic. He speaks to Emile Donovan. 

Millions of people around the world celebrated St Patrick's Day earlier this week, but do we really know much about his life? Well some scholars, believe there is evidence for two St Patricks living at the same time.  

Today, an icon of the scene — Auckland's Metro magazine — announced it is pausing its print edition and moving fully digital. So what does this mean for the cities these magazines helped define — and for culture in Aotearoa more broadly?

Every Friday Night we take a look around Aoteroa for some of the curious events happening around the country. And tonight were heading to Thames for the Vintage Bottle and Collectibles show 

He's back, and no doubt ready to inform, educate and entertain us with an array of eclectic music. It's Finn Johansson

This past weekend, the brand new, revamped, Wellington Central Library - Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui - reopened to much public fanfare, with over eleven-thousand visitors on the first day alone. Wellington Mayor Andrew Little reckons that the re-opening represents a turning point for the city ... and with other revitalisation projects nearing completion, that the future is brighter for Wellington. So, is Wellington back? One of the people who has been writing about and enjoying the space, is Claire Maybe, she joins Emile for a chat.

Every few weeks Nights is putting a foot in the door of some of the weirdest and most wonderful museums the world has on offer. Tonight's museum explores moments, items or just memories often associated with one of the worst times in a persons life . . . We're talking about breakups. The Museum of Broken Relationships is based in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb but has also toured all around the world including here in New Zealand. To find out more about the ethos behind the museum Emile is joined now by founder and director Dražen Grubišic.

The World Happiness Report just dropped for 2026 - it's an annual study that looks at wellbeing of people right around the globe. It found that while happiness in New Zealand remains high - we rank 11th out of 147 countries, (and beating the likes of Australia, and the United States), when it comes to our young people, the news is very unhappy. Since the early 2010's the well-being of those aged15-24 in Aotearoa has had some of the worst decline in the world. In fact, we're ranked a shocking 126 out of 136 countries for changes to youth happiness. This years report links heavy social media use as a key factor behind this decline. Joining us Emile is AUT well-being economist, Associate Professor Stephanie Rossouw.

A new $3.5 billion data centre planned near Invercargill has certainly got people talking. It will be the second-largest power user in the country, but many questions remain about what will be New Zealand's first AI data centre. The company says the project will boost the Southland economy and help ensure New Zealand stays relevant in the world of artificial intelligence. But many remain skeptical about the benefits of the mega-project. Peter Griffin is a Wellington-based science and technology journalist - he joins Emile for a chat.

It's been more than 20 years since the invasion of Iraq by the 'coalition of the willing', led by the United States. While the country is no longer at war and has clawed back some semblance of stability, the shadows of a nine-year conflict still linger. One of the key figures in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq was the American diplomat Paul Bremer, who effectively ran the country during the occupation. His tenure ended abruptly in June 2004, leaving behind a controversial legacy that still shapes Iraq today. Now, Bremer's time in charge is back in the spotlight thanks to a Cambridge University student Nick Davis, who discovered a tranche of private emails between Bremer and his wife stored at Yale University. Those letters have formed the basis of a longform article in The Times. Nick joins Emile to talk about what he found.

Nights' resident sociolinguist Julia de Bres joins Emile -- associate professor at Massey University. Tonight's chat is all about apologising ... when you don't really mean it. We're talking Fauxpologies.

It's March, so that means it's one of the greatest times in the kiwi calendar - Feijoa season. But, recent Feijoa-related post on the New Zealand Reddit page has kiwis up in arms. It's an innocent enough question, from someone new to New Zealand, "what is the correct way to cut a feijoa" ... the traditional crossways ... or, cue the shock and horror ... lengthwise. Commenters have called the latter, "a crime against humanity" "abhorrent" and "just awful." But is there really a correct way to cut a feijoa? Joining Emile is a person who knows a thing or two about this magnificent fruit - Author of FEIJOA: A story of obsession and belonging, it's Kate Evans.

It is a tough time to be running a regional airport in New Zealand. Just last week, Air New Zealand announced it was cancelling 1,100 flights due to rising fuel costs, many of them to airports outside the main centres. Over the past few years, flights and seat availability to regions outside our major cities have steadily declined as the cost of flying to the regions has increased. So, is it time to reconsider how many airports we actually have and instead focus on a smaller, more financially resilient network? That is something Shamubeel Eaqub, chief economist at Simplicity, has been thinking about, and he Emile for a chat.

Any time young men go online or open a social media app, they're stepping into a minefield of competing messages about what it means to be a man. How to act, how to feel and who to be. You've probably heard the term manosphere online spaces that take belonging, purpose and masculine identity and turn them into rigid, often extreme ideas of what it means to be a man. While it's never far from the headlines the issues around it have come to the for again after the British Documentary Louis Threoux documentary launch on Netlfix earlier this month. Joining Emile to discuss further is Dr Zac Seidler, a clinical psychologist and leading expert in men's mental health, as well as Global Director of Men's Health Research at Movember.

Time now for Shower Thoughts -- this is where we find an expert to answer your curious questions about the world and how it works. And tonight, with all this pain at the pump, is it time for us all to consider a new, or should I say old, form of transport ... getting on a horse? But where can you ride a horse in New Zealand, and will it help me with my daily commute? We thought we'd better call in someone in the know. Joining Emile is founding member of the New Zealand Equestrian Advocacy Network, Arthur Yeo.

How much do you love your dog? Well, our next story is about a Sydney man who's definitely in the running to be dog-dad of the year. Back in 2024, Paul Conyngham found out his dog Rosie had cancer. When traditional treatment routes weren't working ... being a tech guy, he turned to Artificial Intelligence and some very smart people for help. Chat GPT advised him to look into immunotherapy and was told that the University of New South Wales Ramaciotti Center for Genomics might be able to help. And help they did Paul was able to get Rosie's genomic sequencing. From there he was able to dig into the DNA data and identify a potential treatment. After a setback with a drugmaker, a team at the university developed a world-first personalised cancer treatment for Rosie. While not completely cured, her health is now doing much better and crucially for Paul, she has more time. To tell Emile more about the exciting science behind this medicine is Professor Martin Smith, Director of the Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics.

If you're a millennial, or someone who spends a lot of time on the internet - there's a high chance you've heard of a company called Buzzfeed...and there's an even higher chance you've done one of their infamous quizzes. The company was launched in 2006, and by the mid 2010's was a digital empire of viral videos, pop culture, listicles, irreverent news articles and more. They were the shining star of the digital landscape - they had cracked the code. But, this week, Buzzfeed has said that it has 'substantial doubt' about its ability to continue as a business. This comes after multiple rounds of lay offs in recent years. So, what's behind this epic rise and fall? Joining Emile to discuss is senior writer and head of audience at The Spinoff, Anna Rawhiti-Connell.

This afternoon, Labour leader Chris Hipkins held a media conference over allegations made by ex-wife, Jade Paul. The claims were first posted on Facebook, then taken down, but they have now spread more widely. But should it have reached the point where the leader of the opposition had to hold a press conference about his personal life? Is this the new reality, where reporting on politicians' personal lives is fair game in a social media world? Or does the public interest outweigh any concerns about the privacy of him, his former wife and his children? Someone who has been watching politics longer than most, and who will have heard a fair few rumours in his more than fifty years as a journalist, is Richard Harman, editor of POLITIK. Richard joins Emile for a chat.

It may be an odd time to argue for less rules and more authority ... but that's exactly what my next guest is doing. Professor Natasha Hamilton-Hart from the University of Auckland's business school has a new book called Stupid Rules: Reducing Red Tape and Making Organisations More Effective and Accountable In it, Natasha argues that it's time to ditch the heavy rule books and give decision-makers the authority to get things done. But how do we untangle ourselves from all this red tape? Professor Natasha Hamilton-Hart joins Emile live in the studio.

Writer and sports fan Richard Irvine joins Emile Donovan to talk about what's been happening in the world of sport.

It's a Monday night, which means it's time to dive into history with Nights' resident historian, Emma Kay. Emma runs Small Histories of New Zealand, digging up curious stories, quirky articles, and forgotten treasures from our past. Tonight with St Patrick's Day tomorrow, she's talking about the history of Irish immigration.

Nelson is a vintage car lover's paradise this week, as hundreds of cars and thousands of enthusiasts gather for the International Festival of Historic Motoring. This four-yearly event, organised by the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand, moves to a different city each time. This year, more than 650 veteran, vintage, and classic cars are taking part. To find out a bit more about what's happening Emile Donovan is joined now by Ray Robertson, President of the Nelson Vintage Car Club.

Winning elections used to be fairly straightforward in New Zealand. Roughly 40 percent voted Labour, 40 percent voted National, and campaigns were really about persuading the 20 percent in the middle. But that kind of party loyalty has faded, and the electorate is much more fragmented today. It's trickier than ever to figure out where people's loyalties lie when it comes to who they'll vote for. Writer Danyl McLauchlan has been analysing NZ Election Study data and has written in the Listener about what this ambiguity means for politics in New Zealand To dive deeper into this, Danyl joins Emile Donovan.

He's back, and no doubt ready to inform, educate and entertain us with an array of eclectic music. It's Finn Johansson!!

Nights' resident screen critic, Dan Slevin, reviews Cold Storage, a fun splatter movie about a space fungus; Secret Mall Apartment, about a group of artists who live in a mall undetected for years and the acclaimed 2024 National Theatre production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Forget my Big Fat Greek Wedding . . . for the first time, there's going to be a "Big Bad Bogan Wedding." Over fifty couples applied for the chance to tie the knot - but beating them all out was Bekz Clarke and Hayden Ward ... or as he's known to his mates, Hazy. 

Melanie Cecilia Stapleton is widely regarded as one of New Zealand - and Australia's - top florists. She's the genius behind renowed studio, Cecilia Fox, an award-winning creative floral studio based in Auckland. And she's been writing about all about the life of flowers - from creation to compost - the florist industry and her own life too, in her brand new book, Pretty Dirty. 

Compiling vows, offering priestly services, and embedding herself in church communities - she's documented her experience in a new book called The Calling. 

Suzanne compiles family documentaries, and 85 percent of her clientele are men. The accomplished women's sports journalist asks: why do women feel like they don't have a story to tell?

Political scientist Natalia Albert joins Emile to discuss a less-talked about 2026 coalition recipe: Labour and Opportunity.