Features

The most tattooed person in the world was among the star attractions at the New Zealand Tattoo and Arts Festival in New Plymouth over the weekend.

Insight - With rising freight volumes another 28,000 truck drivers will be needed in the next decade - but a stressed, ageing workforce is increasingly quitting and young people aren't interested, Tracy Neal reports. Audio

Horticulture is humming in the Gisborne region and there are plenty of jobs around, says Tim Egan who co-owns a 39-hectare apple, kiwifruit and grape orchard. Country Life visits Tim and his happy work crew. Audio

Wellington hip-hop pioneers Upper Hutt Posse were inducted into the Hall of Fame on Thursday at the Vodafone NZ Music Awards. Members Darryl Thomson aka, DLT and Bennett Pomana, aka MC B-Ware, joined Alex Behan to select songs and tell stories for the RNZ Music Mixtape. Video, Audio

Ahead of tonight's opera on RNZ Concert, listen to Clarissa Dunn's backgrounder on composer Giuseppe Verdi and his music. Audio

Chef Ganesh Raj has created a special dessert for this summer's North West Wine, Beer & Food Festival – Whenuapai Trifle. He shares the recipe. Audio

Yoko Ono - now 85 years old - is back with a new album, Warzone, on which two things are clear: firstly, she's still very much a political animal, and secondly, she's at ease with the music of her past and she's happy to revisit it in 2018. William Dart listens entranced Video, Audio

Trevor Courtney has always liked beer, and now the drummer for '60s band Chants R&B is growing hops on a lifestyle block in North Canterbury. Video, Audio, Gallery

The inimitable Yoko Ono – now 85 years old – revisits her musical past and the political present on her new album, Warzone. Long-time fan William Dart takes a listen. Video, Audio

Comedian Terri Psiakis coaxes high-profile Australians into sharing their parenting tips and fessing up to some of the challenges and the failures on Parental Guidance Recommended. Richard Scott takes a listen. Audio

The Beatles 'White Album' is 50 years old and there's a new 6-disc edition to mark the occasion. Nick Bollinger takes a deep dive. Audio

Orson Welles' legendary final film, which he began shooting in 1970, has just been funded to life by Netflix. The Other Side of the Wind is energetic, funny, tragic and utterly self-absorbed, says Dan Slevin.

Are New Zealand the biggest poachers of rugby talent world-wide? Some stats released this week suggest the northern hemisphere sides are worse by a country mile, writes Joe Porter.

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is performing Beethoven’s highly recognisable Ninth Symphony this weekend. We count down the ten most interesting interpretations of the famous ‘Ode to Joy’ theme from the fourth movement.

New York composer Kelly Moran takes the prepared piano on an evocative journey that calls up the ghosts of a supernatural gamelan in this week's edition of Sound Lounge on RNZ Concert from 9.30pm.

For some people, the end of 1999 was no time for celebration. In Headlong: Surviving Y2K, Dan Tabersk meets computer coders, conspiracy theorists and survivalists who believed the Millennium was the beginning of the end. Audio

Violinist Jun Hong Loh premiers a new concerto by John Elmsly with Orchestra Wellington conducted by Marc Taddei. And the orchestra continues its Diaghilev-inspired series with Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird.

An acoustic set from Hopetoun Brown, live on the Dell Stage at WOMAD Taranaki 2018.

Leilani Tominiko watched wrestling to escape transphobic bullying as a child, now she's a grown woman and has realised her dream by becoming the professional wrestler Candy Lee. Video

This week, Nick features his pick of the best NZ jazz of the last 12 months, including Anita Schwabe, Sumo Jazz with Heather Webb, Brad Kang, Umar Zakaria, and Dog.

Teen binge drinking is often brushed off as an experimental phase but, Sarah Catherall reports, research shows early habits die hard and are setting up for a raft of serious health problems later in life.
 

Cellist Matthias Balzat plays the Elgar concerto with the NZSO National Youth Orchestra conducted by Guy Noble, and follows it up with a fun encore.

Spark faces political problems getting 5G - which isn’t for phones anyway; phone brands are set for a bloodbath; and the Trade Me offer likely isn’t good news for regular Kiwis, tech journo Bill Bennett explains.  Audio

Academics have been urged to ensure that cultures of Pacific peoples are promoted within the education system. Audio