There is a distinction between going out to eat, and being fed. The former, for me, is something active that you do as a diner – you might dress up, head out, and spend your hard-earned money at any one of the thousand restaurants that the city has to offer.

In the immediate aftermath of violent attacks, social media often fills the information vacuum before verified facts are available. That space is increasingly occupied by AI-generated deepfakes and manipulated “breaking news” content designed to mislead, inflame, and spread fear.

We speak with Jen Shields about the ideologically motivated, against all evidence, decision by the National coalition government to effectively ban puberty blockers specifically for trans children.

The "leftist activist" who spent a decade working undercover for New Zealand police and intelligence

Transcript: 1/200 S2E149 - Sport NZ and Transgender Inclusion

This episode of 1/200 was recorded on July 26 released on July 27 2025

I was seriously disappointed to read a long article from Duncan Greive which discusses and quotes extensively from Sarah McBride's interview with Ezra Klein - one that generated extensive discussion amongst trans communities internationally a full month ago when it aired - and takes a similarly naive, centrist position along the lines of "how can we effectively argue and bargain for our rights while we compromise and allow disinformation campaigns to push the Overton window further right?"

The Government knew this was going to happen. Remember Chris Luxon chiding local government about ‘doing the basics’ and David Seymour’s announcement that ACT are standing candidates in the local elections this year. They knew this was going to happen because they made it happen. 

It’s to do with water, and water reforms - both the binned Three Waters/Affordable Water Act and the current Government’s Local Water Done Well reforms.

In the wake of pay equity blockages, a thousand or so people went to Parliament Lawn to protest the new Budget, where women and gender minorities have once again taken the fall for commerce and the army. To make the crowd show appreciation for the suffering workforces, the emcee asked us if we’d ever had an incredible teacher who changed our lives.

NZ Labour are like Lucy in Peanuts repeatedly pulling away the football at the last minute, with the proviso that in this analogy NZ Labour are also Charlie Brown. They believe their own lies more than the electorate does.

With “the big squeeze” put on working people, we can see how it is not such a reach that to reduce security in the nation—as represented by the rate of unemployment rising—is to guarantee rising social and personal ills. This will naturally extend to the most extreme social problems, such as suicide. What New Zealanders must confront is how tolerant are we of the degree of precarity that exists in our nation, and if so, are we comfortable with the dark consequences?

This week a coterie of Chrises (PM Luxon, Infrastructure Minister Bishop and presumably Building Minister Penk) will be welcoming some big name investors, pension funds, and construction companies to Auckland to try and flog off some big ticket public-private partnership deals. The $10 billion Northland Expressway is top of the list (although the list is understood to be only four projects).