Navigation for News Categories
Featured Here Now stories
Why we need to grow more rice in New Zealand
Pretty much the last place you'd think you'd find a rice paddy growing is on a hill in Nelson, but Yuki Fukada is doing just that.
-
How do New Zealand apples stay crisp from tree to table?
1 Aug 2025New Zealand is a world leader in ensuring apples picked here arrive in good nick.
-
Zimbabwe to Auckland - Back to Basics with Jay Moyo
8 Jul 2025For so many of us in the diaspora the music we grew up immersed in and for some, trained in, remains a bedrock to our lives here in New Zealand. Jabulani a.k.a…
-
Here Now: Holding onto hope - Iranians in New Zealand
30 Jun 2025We speak to two Iranian New Zealanders who've spent the last few weeks in despair over the fate of their families in Iran and their homeland.
Here Now headlines with summaries.
-
Back to Basics - the bedrock of Indian music
24 Jun 2025In part two of Back to Basics, we're diving into another sonic universe - the fascinating connection between ancient Indian classical music and the more modern sounds of Indian film and folk music.
-
Back to Basics - the sounds of Brazil with Leandro Vasques
16 Jun 2025In this first part of Back to Basics, Leandro Vasques talks about the history behind some genres, his musical influences and what life as a Brazilian muso in Auckland is like for him.
-
Health span versus life span - Dr Sharad Paul on 'biohacking our genes'
26 May 2025With his latest book, globally renowned skin cancer surgeon Dr Sharad Paul reflects on habits and tweaks that may just allow us to hack into genomics to optimize our performance.
-
Bilingual brains and code switching for a laugh - Annie Guo and Summer Xia
28 Apr 2025Comedy by chance, comedy to cope - Accidental Comics is a series of conversations with folks with jokes, sharing stories of arriving at being comics in New Zealand. Produced by Kadambari Raghukumar.
-
Accidental Comics series - Part 1: Edd Rivera
14 Apr 2025Comedy by chance, comedy to cope - Accidental Comics is a series of conversations with folks with jokes, sharing stories of arriving at being comics in New Zealand.
-
'We need a solution soon' - diaspora on the conflict in DRC
Nearly 7000 people have been killed since January this year in the conflict that's ongoing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kadambari Raghukumar talks about the impact of the war with Congolese…
-
Jamaica's Protoje - Keeping an even keel
31 Mar 2025Jamaican reggae artist Protoje - who graced The Bowl stage at WOMAD Aotearoa this year - speaks to Kadambari Raghukumar in this episode about patties, politics and performances.
-
Trinidad to Taranaki - Queen Omega's humble heights
28 Mar 2025This year's WOMAD Aotearoa saw reggae icon Queen Omega draw crowds - she spoke to Kadambari Raghukumar about how it began for her.
-
Artist Vallé on Papua New Guinea, barbering and lyrics
2 Dec 2024Vallé's exploration of his roots has taken him on a journey of many sorts. In this episode of Here Now, he talks to Kadambari Raghukumar about the impact that's had on his life.
-
How two Dunedin foodies ended up looking for spices on a Sri Lankan mountain
4 Nov 2024There are light-hearted wild goose chases for elusive spices, hilarious scenes with Baghya trying her hand at making local dishes, wide-eyed wanderings through ancient food forests but also instants…
-
'Plants don't know borders' - a tropical obsession in Canterbury
16 Sep 2024A love for the flora of tropical jungles brought botanists Julie Barcelona and Pieter Pelser together. What ensued was years of shared adventure and discovery.
-
Taking the art of capoeira beyond Brazil
9 Sep 2024Leandro Vasquez of Abada Capoeira Auckland talks about celebrating the sense of community, art and camaraderie born out of this art.
-
Making a home away from Myanmar - Rohingya in Auckland
2 Sep 2024For many years, Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing their homes in Myanmar to find refuge here in New Zealand. Rashid Ansorali is one of them. He tells Liz Garton about his journey and why he now helps…
Audio -
'I am because of my people' - BIPOC women in New Zealand (Part 4)
26 Aug 2024Drawing from her Zimbabwean background, mental health nurse Sandra Zvenyika talks about navigating a career in her new adopted home.
Audio -
"The personal is political" - BIPOC women in New Zealand (Part 3)
19 Aug 2024From being a cultural producer and advocate, to a doctoral candidate- Makanaka Tuwe has been a bit of an icon in Auckland's African diaspora for several years now. In this third part of the series…
Audio -
"Words have power" - BIPOC women on their careers in New Zealand (Part 2)
12 Aug 2024Social constructs, race and identity are topics that are perpetually on Dr Camille Nakhid's radar and in this episode of Here Now, she chats about her lengthy career in New Zealand with research and…
Audio -
"A hard-won love" - BIPOC women on their careers in New Zealand (Part 1)
5 Aug 2024In part one of four conversations, four black women in New Zealand share their experiences of carving out careers for themselves in New Zealand to becoming leaders in their own fields - from…
Audio -
Nalini Singh -"A stillness and depth in reading"
22 Jul 2024Nalini Singh is a best-selling author of a very particular genre - paranormal romance - and she's now finding a creative reset in writing murder mysteries set in New Zealand.
Audio -
African Film Festival returns to New Zealand for the ninth year
15 Jul 2024Bringing the best of Pan African cinema to New Zealand each year, the African Film Festival returns this month.
Audio -
Persian Zurkhaneh alive and kicking in Canterbury
1 Jul 2024Zurkhaneh - an ancient Persian system of athletics combines martial arts, music, strength and spiritual devotion and is picking up serious momentum in Canterbury.
Audio -
"I had to find a way" - Naeem Hashemi
24 Jun 2024From having to start afresh as a refugee in New Zealand to adjusting to a whole new life as a new amputee- Naeem Hashemi's life is a remarkable story of grit and faith.
Audio -
From a brutal Balkan conflict to the Pacific - Kosovar refugees mark 25 years
17 Jun 2024Twenty-five years ago when the Kosovo war ended, nearly 800,000 Kosavar Albanians were left displaced. Some went to Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and a small number arrived in New Zealand as…
Audio -
"Nothing harder" - Refugee resettlement
10 Jun 2024What's it like for a new refugee to arrive in New Zealand, get resettled and start a new life here? This month we are marking World Refugee Day with 3-part series on stories on refugee resettlement in…
Audio -
“Iceland: Same, Same, Different”
27 May 2024The Pacific and Nordic regions couldn't be further from each other but in this episode Phil Vine's out to find discover some uncanny similarities between NZ and Iceland, and where we really are poles…
Audio
Listen to the full Here Now podcast over on the RNZ podcasts page.
Follow Here Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, YouTube Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Top News stories
- Protesters confront Resources Minister Shane Jones in Whangārei over fast-track projects
- Air traffic control outage disrupts multiple flights, forcing diversions back to New Zealand
- Spring Hill Prison lockdown ends after inmates start riot, light fires
- New Zealand mother Sarah Shaw and six-year-old son detained by US immigration return home
- Trump says Ukraine needs to make a deal after summit with Putin ends without ceasefire
Subscribe
Get the top 8 headlines each day at 8am with our daily email newsletter.
