The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including:

* Robert Patman and Elaine Monaghan on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine;

* Cathrine Dyer on the week in climate news, including a major new paper on accelerating climate change from Dr James Hansen et al, and January’s surprisingly high temperature average; and,

* University of Canterbury Professor Anne-Marie Brady on the latest diplomatic tensions with the Cook Islands over China, and how New Zealand should think about our relations with China and the United States under Donald Trump.

The Hoon’s podcast version above was recorded on Thursday night during a live webinar for over 200 paying subscribers and was produced and edited by Simon Josey.

The link to the video above was added after the email was sent to all subscribers. Bernard and Peter discussed a discussion paper on media issued this week by Media & Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith.

We also discussed comments yesterday by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that: “I’m here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe.”

The Hoon won the silver award for best current affairs podcast in this year’s New Zealand Podcast awards.

(This is a sampler for all free subscribers and anyone else who stumbles on it. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, we’re able to spread my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction other public venues. Join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments, and by subscribing in full.)

Ngā mihi nui.

Bernard

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thekaka.substack.com/subscribe