Into the wild

Germans hate snakes and insects, the Japanese loathe spiders, and Americans shun birds, fish and horses. But violent creatures with “big gnashy teeth” pull in viewers, and it’s this instinctive understanding of their audience which has kept Natural History New Zealand going for more than 30 years. The company’s reputation as a documentary maker has also enabled it to branch out into science, history and travel programmes, shooting in locations as exotic as Iceland, Brazil and Madagascar. Amanda Cropp went behind the scenes to find out just what else NHNZ has up its sleeve. Read the story on our website or in the latest Idealog.

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Architecture with an appetite

Feeling peckish? Here are 10 mouthwatering buildings from around the world to whet your appetite. With names like the Pineapple, the Orange Stinger and the Donut Hole, they’ve all become cultural icons in their respective cities.

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Magical motorways

This 1958 Disneyland TV Show episode, Magic Highway USA, epitomises a time when the future was viewed with wide-eyed optimism. Check out their vision of how technology might have transformed the world… and compare it to how far we’ve come. Or not. Love the sun powered electro suspension car—inspired!

Get the message

Forget the boring pictures of blackened teeth and gangrenous limbs on the back of cigarette packs—these creative stop-smoking ads will blow you away. Our picks: “Lungs”, “The Smoke”, and “Terrorism”.

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It's all gravy

The fourth season of The Gravy kicks off next Friday, but you can watch the first episode in full exclusively online on the TVNZ website from today. The programme showcases New Zealand culture and arts with each episode in the latest series shot around a specific theme. Muso Warren Maxwell, playwright Gabe McDonnell and graphic artist Ross Liew return as presenters; the first episode features a group of artists in Taranaki.

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Put a ring on it

Why let Saturn and Jupiter have all the fun? This video shows what Earth would look like if it had a ring system. You might be surprised …

Write on

Are you a budding Diane Warren or Ernest Hemingway? AUT, in conjunction with Idealog and bFM, is looking to kickstart the careers of one Kiwi songwriter and short story writer respectively. Enter your script or lyrics by January 31 (more details here) and you could be hearing your song on the radio or score a mentor in the form of a successful New Zealand author.

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Quote of the week

“I remember a German saying to me ‘the only thing you have in New Zealand is birds—and they’re all dying.’ So we had to prove to the world that we could do more than just birds.”

– Michael Stedman on proving the naysayers wrong.