The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking about the year’s news with:

* Cathrine Dyer on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. Cathrine’s person of the year was David Seymour.

* Robert Patman on geopolitics. His book of the year was Terence O’Brien’s Consolations of Insignificance: A New Zealand Diplomatic Memoir, which was also Helen Clark’s book of the year, and Robert’s person of the year was Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

* Helen Clark on geopolitics and local politics. Her person of the year was Donald Trump.

* Elaine Monaghan on US politics and geopolitics. Her book of the year was Marsha Linehan’s memoir Building a Life Worth Living. Her person of the year was Mazen al Hamada, a Syrian activist who was tortured by the Syrian regime, left Syria in 2013, returned four years ago, was captured, tortured again and killed just before the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. ABC

* Josie Pagani on geopolitics and local politics. Here book of the year was Tony Blair’s On Leadership and her person of the year was fictional UK Labour MP Fiona Wilson. UK Press Association

* Peter Bale book of the year was Richard Flanagan’s memoir Question 7 and his person of the year was Gisèle Pelicot, the French woman who came forward to testify in the rape trial of her husband, Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed last night for 20 years. The Guardian

* Bernard Hickey’s podcast of the year was The Spinoff’s Juggernaut podcast on the fourth Labour Government by Toby Manhire & Te Aihe Butler. His person of the year was Simeon Brown in Aotearoa, and Donald Trump internationally.

Each of the panellists and hosts also gave their predictions for 2025 near the end. Listen to the podcast to find out what they were. :)

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

This was the last Hoon for 2024. Our first Hoon of 2025 will be on Thursday, January 23 (not not January 16 as mentioned in the podcast), although this could change with events…dear boy.

(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

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