Be Still And Know - The Value of Doing Nothing

Could boredom be a good discipline to cultivate?! Media chaplain Frank Ritchie catches up with Di Campblell for a chat about the Biblical benefits of idleness, discussing new brain research that show our minds are most active when we're doing nothing at all. Frank warns that constantly fill…

Housing Report Reveals Crisis Has Hit Regions

Di Campbell invites Dr Bonnie Robinson from The Salvation Army's Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit to break down their newly released housing stocktake report. Dr Robinson paints a broad picture of slightly improved supply...but of the wrong sort - a national housing crisis that has moved o…

One Saviour, Many Paths of Conversion

Theologian Reverend Dr Malcolm Falloon unpacks the moment and process of conversion, in this heart-to-heart about the business of salvation. Dr Falloon and Andrew Urquhart discuss the act of coming to faith as a whole-of-life reorientation towards Christ—rooted in identity, belief and lived pra…

Young Kiwis Navigating a Social Media Minefield

An entire generation of digital natives whose youth has been shaped by social media and pandemic disruptions face some unique challenges to their health and development. Youth pastor and Family First podcaster Samuel Bilton discusses research such as Jonathan Haidt's that shows reduced sleep a…

Apologies in Politics: The Real, the Fake & the Principled Not-Sorry

Better a well-considered "sorry" or even "not sorry", than a performative and insincere 'apology reflex'. Tash McGill ponders the 'art of the apology' in politics, most recently demonstrated by Winston Peters' refusal to back down over his retort to a heckle in Parliament, and Christopher Luxon…

Cash for Kids: Can Bribes Budge Birthrate

Tim Wilson of The Maxim Institute weighs in on New Zealand First's "Kiwi Kids Grant" policy offering $5,000 a year for the first three years of a child's life to help counter New Zealand's declining birth rate. While praising the policy for correctly targeting a real demographic problem, he qu…

Kiwi Kids Grant: Babies are Gifts, Not Cash Cows

A family advocate is welcoming the move from political parties to take our plummeting birth rate seriously, but questions whether the policies on offer are viable solutions. Commenting on New Zealand First's "Kiwi Kids Grant" policy - which would pay parents $15,000 per child for their first th…

Fauci Pleads the Fifth: A COVID Reckoning

Nearly five years since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first COVID-19 vaccine, former Chief Medical Advisor Dr Anthony Fauci appeared before a Senate hearing to face his day of reckoning for his role in the United States' Covid-19 response. Many would say justice is still not s…

Women's Voices in Scripture

Miriam Fisher has hand-stitched 8,001 words spoken by women of the Bible, crafted for a project called "Every Woman's Words". From Eve to the fortune-telling slave girl in Acts, the Laidlaw College lecturer talks to Andrew Urquhart about how women feature prominently in Scripture and were quite…

How Can We Rise Above Racist Retorts & Grievance Culture

It appears Winston Peters has once again sparked a media pile-on, after telling a migrant MP to "go back to your own country" - apparently in response to the MP's interjection during Rt Hon. Peters' address to Parliament.   A civil liberties advocate acknowledges it was a regrettable moment of 't…