Best of 2019: the freethinkers

Some of our most popular characters of the year walked roads less travelled; they refused to hate, they yodelled, lived off the grid and created gourmet garden sheds.

Jamali Maddix: how to talk to the haters 

When English comedian Jamali Maddix takes to the stage, expect brutally honest material on the state of society and personal tales of hate and confrontation.

 

Eve Ensler: 'Writing an apology to myself from my abusive father has freed me'

In her latest book The Apology, Eve Ensler writes an apology to herself from her long-dead father for his sexual and physical abuse of her as a child.

 

Pio Terei on loss, laughter and living off the grid

New Zealand is ripe for living off the grid, says Māori actor, singer and comedian Pio Terei.

 

Eddie Jaku: the 99-year-old Holocaust survivor refuses to hate

Eddie Jaku was sent to Auschwitz as a young man and survived by hiding in a cave and eating slugs and snails.

 

Wylie Gustafson: The yodeler who sued Yahoo! and won

The man behind the trademark yodel for Yahoo! - all three notes of it - says he's really all about the (country) music.

 

'Not one more acre': The mana of Dame Whina Cooper

In 1975, Dame Whina Cooper was 80, and frail, when she led a hikoi more than 1054 kilometres to the steps of Parliament in Wellington - and demanded to be listened to. 

 

The evolutionary ecologist who found god via Richard Dawkins

Science alone can't save the planet, according to ethnobiologist and Anglican minister Andy Gosler. The world needs more connection and understanding, he says.

 

Kitty Flanagan's 488 Rules For Life

Australian comedian Kitty Flanagan's guide to modern behaviour covers surround-sound, hipster-talking parents, old men and their hair,  tattoos and airport etiquette.

 

Oobah Butler: the English writer who passed his garden shed off as a top-rated restaurant

English writer Oobah Butler shot to infamy when he turned the garden shed he was living in into TripAdvisor's top-rated London restaurant – by creating a fake website.

 

Sarah Perry on leaving the church to become a writer

British author Sarah Perry (The Essex Serpent) talks to Kim Hill about faith, illness, moral courage and her taste for the gothic.