The Detail
RNZ
Join The Detail team six days a week as they make sense of the big stories with the country’s best journalists and experts. Produced by Newsroom for RNZ, and made possible by NZ on Air. Listen on RNZ National at 7pm Monday-Thursday during The Panel. Winner, Best News and Current Affairs podcast, NZ Radio and Podcast Awards 2024
- 25 minutes 11 secondsThe killer debating team from Paremoremo Prison
Sir Don McKinnon has travelled the world, rubbed shoulders with diplomats - and was nearly kidnapped at Paremoremo prison
Nearly fifty years ago, six of the country's worst offenders were released from prison for the night for a debate in central Auckland
17 April 2026, 4:00 pm - 22 minutes 8 secondsNew Zealand faces coastal retreat reality
Following yet another storm battering our coasts last weekend, pressure mounts on coastal communities to discuss relocation
New Zealand communities confront the financial, cultural, and spiritual costs of staying by the sea - and of leaving
16 April 2026, 5:00 pm - 22 minutes 48 secondsThe sobering report on water that's unlikely to spark action
Scientists worry that the often-long time lags between cause and effect when it comes to polluting our lakes and rivers will give politicians the excuse not to do anything about it
There's always something more urgent to attend to, but here's why we need to take freshwater warnings more seriously
15 April 2026, 5:00 pm - 23 minutes 58 secondsThe wicked problem of petroleum in our lives
Petroleum is in everything from plumbing products to chocolate, so with the Strait of Hormuz blocked, industries face price hikes and folding projects
The price of plumbing products is set to soar by 30 percent as the impact of the petroleum crisis spreads beyond the petrol pump, in what one expert calls a wicked problem
Find The Detail on Newsroom or RNZ14 April 2026, 4:00 pm - 21 minutes 55 secondsNo more government money for gangs
'Not one cent' - National MP moves to cut taxpayer funding to gang-linked groups, but one critic calls it 'short-sighted' and argue there will be fallout - including more victims
A member's Bill could stop public funding to gangs and organisations with gang ties. It's unlikely to be a hard sell, but one expert says it's 'cutting off our nose to spite our face'.
13 April 2026, 4:00 pm - 23 minutes 1 secondRecord fleet for solo trans-Tasman yacht race
The Opua Cruising Club has taken over management for the iconic event, and it's promising to be bigger and better than ever
The oldest competitor in this year's solo trans-Tasman yacht race is also one of the favourites to take the title
12 April 2026, 4:00 pm - 22 minutes 12 secondsFrom inmate to influencer - Dave Letele Snr is turning lives around
It's a second chance for criminals, which Letele says is really their first chance, given the life many of them were born into
A new documentary shines a light on the Grace Foundation's bold rehab model for high-risk offenders and addicts, fuelled by the loss and lived experience of a former gang criminal
10 April 2026, 4:00 pm - 25 minutes 4 secondsWhat Artemis has done for the future of human life in space
A 'permanent presence' on the moon is only a few years away, and Mars maybe a decade behind that - but that doesn't mean it's time to sell your house and make plans to relocate
Space scientists expect a 'permanent presence' on the moon by 2028, and say now is the time to lay the groundwork for international rules for lasting peace in space
Find The Detail on Newsroom or RNZ9 April 2026, 4:00 pm - 22 minutes 30 secondsNo baby boom, just doom and gloom
Birth rates are falling globally, inspiring pro-natalist movements and government schemes to incentivise procreation - but it's not working
Countries around the world are trying everything from financial incentives to law changes to reverse declining birth rates. None of it is working.
Find The Detail on Newsroom or RNZ8 April 2026, 4:00 pm - 23 minutes 34 secondsA carbon Catch-22
Little cellulose balls could be a big answer to burying carbon emissions - if there's proof they work. Getting that is proving difficult.
A company that says it has a startling solution to carbon storage wants New Zealand to make rule changes so it can forge ahead
7 April 2026, 5:00 pm - 24 minutes 18 secondsWhen the numbers don't add up
Statistics are a vitally important tool to plan and inform government policy - but when they're wrong or misleading, trust is at risk
A former government statistician is sounding alarms about our ditching of the five-yearly census, saying we risk losing a rich seam of information
6 April 2026, 4:00 pm - More Episodes? Get the App