Whether it’s Woolworths’ little plastic Disney Ooshies or New World’s fancy Smeg knives, supermarket promotions have seeped into the national consciousness, prompting secondary markets and school bans. Alex Casey joins Toby to talk through the allure of these campaigns in a cost of living gloom, and to look back at some of the greatest and strangest supermarket promotions of the 21st century.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Jin Fellet and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Schools and elderly care centres are getting smashed, health providers are splitting at the seams thanks to a late seasonal surge in respiratory illness. Emma Gleason joins Toby to talk through the impacts and how we can respond.
Plus: Hayden Donnell continues his peanut butter passion project. Which peanut butter will take out the smooth crown?

At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Jin Fellet and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former National minister Tim Groser joins Toby to explain why they’re plunging a drill into the magma beneath the Taupō volcanic zone – and how supercritical geothermal success could prove a gamechanger for energy security, for climate change and for the economy as a whole.
Plus: In How Good, NZ Fashion Week is under way. Emma Gleason picks her highlights.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Jin Fellet and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tiki Taane has been making music since the last decade of the last millennium in Christchurch. From the early successes of Salmonella Dub through some really dark days and on to a thriving solo career, he’s seen a whole lot of changes in musical form and production, and a revolution in the music business. Today, with the 20th anniversary of Past, Present, Future just around the corner, he’s still exploring new ways of doing things. A year ago, he quit Spotify and he’s now jumped on the new NZ-based platform Lume. He sits down with Toby to reveal how that’s going for him so far.

At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Jin Fellet and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A nightmarish fortnight has ended with the prime minister summoning MPs to Wellington for an urgent in-person National Party caucus meeting. On the agenda, not for the first time: his own leadership. Spinoff editor Veronica Schmidt joins Toby Manhire to trace the path to Christopher Luxon’s moment of truth and ask: what will the MPs be weighing as they make their way to that 9.30am showdown?
Plus: Liam Ratana on an unprecedented, pulsating, potent haka at the Warriors.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Jin Fellet and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we count down the days to a knife-edge election, where do the parties stand? Spinoff parliamentary reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith joins Toby for a stocktake: the headline policies, the slogans, and of course the mojo.
Plus: In How Good, Alex Casey learns to sing.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Jin Fellet and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At last we’ve got a date for the opening of the City Rail Link – is it really going to transform Auckland? Hayden Donnell joins Toby to talk through the decade-long, multibillion project, how it will change things from an economic and practical standpoint, who deserves the credit on the Donnell index, and where we sit on the utopian-to-sceptic spectrum.
Plus: In How Good, Claire Mabey raves about the survivalist TV show Alone.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Jin Fellet and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Zealand has not seen jobless numbers like this for a decade. Bernard Hickey of the Kākā joins Toby to talk through the latest quarterly numbers, the reality they reflect, whether there is something brighter on the horizon, and how they fit with the mood Christopher Luxon encountered in Rotorua the other day.
Plus: In How Good, Tara Ward gives her verdict on the new NZ television drama Ms X.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Jin Fellet and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The prime minister got a shock when he saw the media coverage of his breakfast meeting with Rotorua businesspeople – it talked of him scolding them about a “parent-child mentality” in government-business relations, urging “adult” behaviour and recounting his own attitude in Chicago corporate life. So his office issued a transcript of the exchange, which didn’t much help. Duncan Greive, founder of The Spinoff, joins Toby (with a cameo from Claude AI) to discuss the PM’s communication challenges, and his ongoing struggle to take any grip of the narrative.
(Since this podcast was recorded, Luxon has apologised for the remarks.)
Plus: In How Good, Te Aihe Butler on the old tech that is healing his brain.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Jin Fellet and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nigel Farage faces a stern challenge in a Clacton byelection from an alien space warrior with a bin on his head and a manifesto packed with nonsense. New Zealand has its own history of joke political parties (most famously the McGillicuddy Serious Party) but the satirical larder looks bare today. Ben Uffindell, who led the Civilian Party to admirable failure in 2014, joins Toby to talk about the role of silly and satirical parties in democracy, where he went wrong, where he went right, and whether a return is on the cards in 2026.
Plus: In praise of cinema splendour at the Civic at film festival time in Auckland.
At Large with Toby Manhire is produced by Te Aihe Butler, Jin Fellet and The Spinoff. Read more at ⁠thespinoff.co.nz⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices