The Detail: Celebrating 1000 episodes

Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories.

Over the years, we've spoken to some of the best journalists and sharpest experts in Aotearoa. To celebrate 1,000 episodes, The Detail team have looked back and picked some of our favourites.

Alexia Russell

"One of the best things that can happen to you as a journalist is change as a result of what you do," says Alexia.

Earlier this year, she presented an episode on the little-known risk of silicosis – a form of lung disease from exposure to the particulates of engineered stone that's been causing deaths, especially among tradies.

Alexia spoke to the 60 Minutes Australia investigative journalist who broke the silicosis story, Adele Ferguson, and one of New Zealand's leading experts on dust diseases, Dr Alexandra Muthu.

"Immediately after that podcast, New Zealand's largest and only national stone benchtop fabricator announced it was banning engineered stone that contained more than 40 percent silica."

Working on The Detail is the best job she's had in her more than 40-year career, she says.

City bees and their rescuers

In 2021, Sharon Brettkelly visited an urban beehive atop a commercial building in the Auckland suburb Point Chevalier. It's one of Alexia's favourite episodes.

Jessie Baker of Bees Up Top showed The Detail around her operation, running beekeeping classes, rescuing bees, and renting out hives to families, businesses and community groups around the city. In the five kilometre zone that the bees fly around to forage for food are native trees, people's gardens and city parks that flower year round.

"The sound that she produced, the recordings that she made, it made you feel like you were up there with her," says Alexia.

Sharon Brettkelly

On the ground at the parliament protest

Sharon has co-hosted The Detail since its inception in 2019 – that's hundreds of episodes under her belt.

"The most memorable one I've done is the Wellington protests," she says. "It was a real eye-opener, in so many ways."

She was on the scene during the 23-day occupation of parliament lawn in 2022, talking to anti-government and anti-mandate protesters for what became one of the most-listened-to podcasts of the year.

"Their views were varied. There was some hostility," – including being physically grabbed – "there were some who wanted to hug me, and others who were really reasonable and just wanted to explain their view."

Sharon's favourite thing to do is to get out of the office and be where the stories are – earlier this year, she visited Aotea Great Barrier Island for The Detail.

"I like talking to people in their space, because you get a completely different interview. It feels more real."

Tom Kitchin

Why plain language is such an important skill

One of co-host Tom Kitchin's favourite episodes is from 2022. 

The episode was inspired by a member's bill drawn from the biscuit tin that would compel Crown agencies to cut the corporate jargon and write plainly. Take this unnecessarily complicated sentence, for example: 'Management is cognisant of the necessity of eliminating the vegetation from the periphery of the facility.' 

"It hits my nerves as a journalist," says Tom.

"The number of reports I've read where I'm thinking 'what does this mean, these words are confusing' ... Hearing about why we might naturally write gobbledygook really makes you think."

Penny de Borst of plain language business Write Limited told The Detail of the many benefits to cutting the babble:

"It increases trust and transparency ... it supports equity ... it works for people with English as an additional language, it works for people who use screen readers ... it's easier to translate. And it also improves efficiency: if every email that came into your inbox was short, crystal clear, how much time would you save every day?"

Bonnie Harrison

Long Read: Immortal Bangers and Me

This year, The Detail started producing a weekend Long Read episode, where some of New Zealand's best feature writers join the podcast to discuss their works and read them aloud.

"One of the absolute best episodes was having Shayne Carter in," says Bonnie.

The legendary Straitjacket Fits and Dimmer musician read his North & South magazine story, recounting his experiences programming a show in partnership with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. The episode features a few pieces of music from the concert.

"An orchestra is full of sonorous tones," Carter reads in his iconic drone. "I sing in front of the strings, which is like lying on a bed of velvet."

Bonnie says the read was especially good because Carter stopped midway through to live-edit his writing – "Alexia and I couldn't help but laugh. He's such a character."

Do you have a favourite episode? Let us know at thedetail@rnz.co.nz.

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.  

You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.