Features

Multi-genre Latin music group Latinaotearoa have just finished a raucous tour of Australia and New Zealand in the wake of their recently released third album Influencis et Collabis Audio

TVNZ has removed a documentary that claims Celts settled New Zealand thousands of years before the arrival of Māori from its on demand service following a query from RNZ's Mediawatch programme.  Audio

'The Celebrated Chop Waltz' — aka the only piece most of us can play on the piano — was written in 1877 by a 16 year-old British girl. Upbeat explores some rather adventurous variations of the classic.

West Auckand teenager William Rakena was wagging school and committing crime, before his aunty and dance turned his life around. He tells his own story in the documentary Both Worlds.

Barely concealed misogyny — such as the recent Facebook abuse of a LGBT rights advocate and sexual abuse survivor — surfaces online every day, writes Anna Connell.

Auckland band White Chapel Jak are the winners of Jesse Mulligan's Battle of the Cover Bands. They visit our Auckland studio to put their own special twist on some of your favourite songs. Video, Audio

Devilskin sell out shows all over the globe and are one of New Zealands biggest independent bands. In the build up to their latest nationwide tour Paul and Jenny from the band join us for the RNZ Mixtape. Video, Audio

Auckland band White Chapel Jak are the winners of Jesse Mulligan 1-4's Battle of the Cover Bands. They play some of your favourite songs with their own special twist in our Auckland studio.

It's thought there could be several thousand New Zealand babies born every year with brains damaged in the womb by alcohol; Insight investigates. Video, Audio

Isaiah Tour's parents tell him he used to speak Chinese, but he can't remember it. The 26 year old explores with his friends how being English speakers affects their relationships with their Asian families.

At 54, Olympic equestrian and dairy farmer Matthew Grayling hopes he and his horse Trudeau still have some international events in their future — as long as they don't coincide with calving season. Audio

It is 100 years since the British Parliament passed the Representation of the People Act, which meant for the first time women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote. The Proms celebrates with works by women composers including suffragette Dame Ethyl Smyth.

Christy Valentine is the head of development at Soulsville Foundation, an academy for singers and musicians in Aretha Franklin's childhood neighbourhood in Memphis Tennessee. She spoke with producer Bridget Burke, just after news of Aretha's death broke this morning. Video, Audio

Outspoken hip-hop MC Tom Scott is back with a new jazz-infused project called Avantdale Bowling Club. Tony Stamp finds out what he's been up to and how such an ambitious album came to be. Video, Audio

When Dawn Bendall was getting chemotherapy for breast cancer, one of the few foods she could tolerate was duck eggs. She and her husband Glen farm 383 White Pekin ducks in Taranaki. Audio

Puccini's breakthrough opera is performed by international soloists with the Auckland Philharmonia and New Zealand Opera in a concert performance.

The RNZ Music Team of Alex Behan, Kirsten Johnstone, Tony Stamp, Danielle Street and Yadana Saw bring dancefloor bangers and warm fluffies to their mid-Winter play and tell.  Video, Audio

Dunedin musician Dudley Benson is a caster of spells and weaver of dreams. His new album Zealandia proves he's one of the best we have, says William Dart. Video, Audio

Katy Gosset pays tribute to Baden Nolan Norris — a beloved Lyttelton historian and Antarctic adventurer who died this week at 91. Audio

It's been an eight-year wait for Dudley Benson's new album Zealandia. William Dart shares its extravagance, finery, and its very special revelations. Video, Audio

The new action comedy film — starring Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon — delivers pretty much what it says on the wrapper, says Simon Morris. Video, Audio

Listen / Read - 1950s New Zealand was a watershed era, and a charmed time to be a child: We didn't have to go to war, no one was very rich or very poor, and we didn’t have to endure a depression, says John Bluck. 

'Queen of Soul' Aretha Franklin gets the 'Respect' she deserves from four of New Zealand's best soul singers: Annie Crummer, Bella Kalolo, Esther Stephens and Aaradhna. Audio

Opinion - The law curbing foreign purchases of existing New Zealand homes is rushed policy-making and is likely to have an imperceptible impact on the housing crisis, Shamubeel Eaqub writes.