An in-depth conversation with drinks professional, Jules Van Costello. We talk about his brand new book, "Beyond the Vines: The Changing Landscape of Wine in Aotearoa New Zealand" and his previous book about craft beer, Brewed. We talk about his rise through the hospitality industry and into winemaking, distributing and promoting; to writing and blogging and to shares in restaurants.

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An in-depth conversation with poet and academic John Newton. We talk about his brand new novel-in-verse, Escape Path Lighting. We talk through his love of music - including his sideline in songwriting and the band we both used to play in. We talk poetry and his critical history of New Zealand writing (he's one volume in on a three-book deep-dive). We talk about a life spent dedicated to writing, to finding poetry in various places in New Zealand and Australia. He is also currently in Dunedin for the Robert Burns Fellowship - so we talk through his lockdown experience in that city in that role.

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An in-depth conversation with musician, producer and label-owner (Rattle) Steve Garden

An in-depth conversation with musician Paul Ubana Jones

An in-depth conversation with Wellington-based comedian and sex-worker Lucy Roche. We talk about her background in comedy and her rise through the talent quests, open-mics to headlining shows. We talk about how she generates material, the writing process, her aims and ambitions. And we talk about her other job - a sex worker. She talks about this often as part of her act. We talk Covid-19 and the lockdown. And the life of a comedian - the quest to generate material and navigating the safe-spaces in joke-telling vs. the risk-areas.

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An in-depth conversation with Andrew Armitage, owner of one of the last video rental stores standing in New Zealand, the legendary Aro St. Video Shop (Aro Video). We talked about his life and beginnings, his passions of music and film and where they came from and how they were shaped. We talked synth-pop and discovering the guitar to be a singer/songwriter later in life. We talked about the development of the shop in its growth years, the transition to DVD from VHS, when Flight of the Conchords played in the store to promote the release of their DVD and the last decade of 'hanging on' in the streaming era. We talked a lot about podcasts too - mine, this one and Andrew's (currently on hiatus, the brilliant Back To The Disc Player). Huge chat with a local legend.

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