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It’s (not) a new bike! How to manage kids’ gift expectations at Christmas

Holiday celebrations involving gift giving can be roller coasters. The excitement of tearing into gifts is often mixed with intense anticipation –...

yesterday 8

Elizabeth Westrupp

What did Australians watch on TV on Christmas Eve 1960?

Television has been part of people’s homes and lives for decades. And that makes it an intriguing part of everyday life and cultural history –...

yesterday 8

Kit Macfarlane

We know about Jesus as a baby, and as a man. But what kind of child was he?

But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes is a line from one of my least favourite Christmas carols. Apart from being generally saccharine, Away in...

yesterday 8

Robyn J. Whitaker

‘Never move around a flaming dessert’: a scientist explains the chemistry of a Christmas pudding

Christmas means different things to different people. For me, it’s an opportunity to eat celebratory foods that aren’t available all year round....

yesterday 8

Nathan Kilah

Most of NZ’s flowering plants grow nowhere else – and Christmas falls in peak blooming season

Traditionally, the plants associated with Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere – holly, ivy, mistletoe – are celebrated for their evergreen leaves...

yesterday 9

Philip Garnock-Jones

Why mangoes fall before they’re ripe – and how science is helping them hang on

Ever wondered why your mango tree drops fruit before it’s ripe? Each season, mango growers across Australia watch helplessly as millions of mangoes...

yesterday 9

Sophie Jones

Ice baths and marathons: our modern obsession with ‘wellness’ is driven by ancient instincts

If you’ve spent even a little time on social media in recent years, you’ve no doubt come across a swathe of “wellness” content. From kilometre-long...

yesterday 10

Samuel Cornell

Celia Paul and Stephanie Radok have devoted their lives to making art – and writing about it

Women artists have always struggled to maintain an art practice as the primary focus of their lives. Going it alone, they’ve needed to contrive...

yesterday 9

Carol Lefevre

Search engines will soon start filtering adult content under new eSafety rules

Search engines in Australia will soon have to blur pornographic and violent images in some cases to limit the chances children accidentally...

previous day 2

Lisa M. Given

Should kids at least do a little bit of school work over the holidays?

As the summer holidays begin, parents may feel concerned their children will “forget how to spell their own names” during the long school break. Or...

previous day 9

Sarah Jefferson

Want to get your teens reading books this summer? 7 teens share their favourite books in 2025

Around the world, young people are reading for pleasure less often, suggests a recent report. In Australia, 29% of high school students don’t read...

previous day 1

Kate Douglas

What world was Jesus born into? A historian describes the turbulent times of the real nativity

Every year, millions of people sing the beautiful carol Silent Night, with its line “all is calm, all is bright”. We all know the Christmas story...

previous day 10

Joan Taylor

Terror, androgyny and benevolence: a brief history of angels in Christianity

Christianity began with the appearance of an angel. In the gospel of Luke, Mary is told by the angel Gabriel she will conceive and bear a son and...

previous day 7

Philip C. Almond

Could Settlers of Catan make you a better strategist?

Christmas is just around the corner, and you might be wondering how to spend those long, lazy afternoons. If you’re tired of the same old Monopoly,...

previous day 8

Nelly Liyanagamage

Don’t drive the sleigh on your own: 5 tested management tips for surviving Christmas like a boss

Let’s face it: as well as sparkly and bright, the coming of Christmas can feel daunting, overwhelming and exhausting. In the workplace, the tenets...

previous day 9

Candice Harris

Albanese government announces gas reservation plan to address supply and price

The federal government has announced its much-anticipated gas reservation scheme, to provide security for Australia’s domestic supply and put...

monday 2

Michelle Grattan

View from The Hill: Has Albanese misjudged the public mood or is he fearful of a royal commission?

Anthony Albanese’s resistance to calling a national royal commission in the wake of Bondi is nearly impossible to comprehend. Some would argue a...

monday 1

Michelle Grattan

Scammers won’t take a break over Christmas. Here’s how to make a plan with your family to stay safe

With Christmas just around the corner, it can be a very busy and stressful time of year. Between festive gatherings, ticking off what’s left on...

monday 1

Cassandra Cross

Disaster after disaster: do we have enough raw materials to ‘build back better’?

This Christmas Day marks 21 years since the terrifying Indian Ocean tsunami. As we remember the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in this tragic...

monday 10

Missaka Nandalochana Hettiarachchi

No gym or regular routine? Here’s how to stay fit over the holiday break

The festive season can throw our exercise routines out the window. You might be staying somewhere different, with no access to a gym. Maybe your...

monday 1

Joanna Nicholas

The macabre imagination and erratic life of the man behind Christmas story The Nutcracker

It’s that time of year when our favourite Christmas stories reemerge to dominate the stage and screen. Prominent among them is The Nutcracker, a...

monday 1

Eric Parisot

Who was Amelia Frank? The life of a forgotten physicist

In 1977, an American physicist named John H. Van Vleck won the Nobel prize for his work on magnetism. In his Nobel lecture, amid a discussion of...

monday 20

Peter Jacobson

More than just being well: teens and Gen Z are redefining what it means to be healthy

Health isn’t what it used to be – namely the absence of being sick. Ask any teenager today what it means to them to be healthy, and you’re...

monday 1

Susanna Trnka

When disasters strike, home batteries could be a lifeline

Extreme weather is placing greater strain on Australia’s power grids. In 2022, the record-breaking Northern Rivers floods blacked out almost 70,000...

monday 9

Jamshid Aghaei

Food is belonging, otherness and a ‘glorious addiction’ for Melissa Leong and Candice Chung

Food can bring us together. It carries memories and meaning. And it’s at the centre of new memoirs by food writers Melissa Leong and Candice Chung....

monday 1

Lauren Samuelsson

Australia’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies to be reviewed post Bondi

Australian law enforcement and intelligence agencies are to be reviewed, in the Albanese government’s latest response in the wake of the Bondi...

21.12.2025 1

Michelle Grattan

Olivia Nuzzi didn’t report what she knew about RFK Jr – could she have stopped his rise?

In the ten months since his confirmation as United States Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr has regularly made headlines. Last month, he...

19.12.2025 2

Kate Cantrell

A virtual reality tool I developed is helping Indigenous people connect with Country

“It makes me feel like I am right there on Country”. This was the response of a student after they used a new virtual reality (VR) tool I...

19.12.2025 10

Kevin Taylor

Albanese announces national gun buyback scheme

Australia will see the biggest gun buyback since the 1990s, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a national scheme on Friday. Under the...

19.12.2025 1

Michelle Grattan

What the hyperproduction of AI slop is doing to science

Over the past three years, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has had a profound impact on society. AI’s impact on human writing, in...

19.12.2025 8

Vitomir Kovanovic

Chris Wallace-Crabbe was a poet of international renown, a beloved teacher and a generous man

Chris Wallace-Crabbe, who died at the age of 91 on Tuesday, was one of Australia’s best-known and best-loved poets. He was one of the few...

19.12.2025 2

David Mccooey

Should I pour this down the sink? (Probably not, and here’s why)

Ever been about to pour rancid milk down the sink and thought…“Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t…”? What about the tomato passata that’s gone off? Or...

19.12.2025 3

Faisal Hai

Dunedin’s inner-city greening project shows even small spaces can be wildlife havens

Even small green spaces can bring nature back into cities, as our project in Ōtepoti Dunedin has shown. Over the past two years, Dunedin’s city...

19.12.2025 3

Jacqueline Theis

Trump’s new security strategy exposes the limits of NZ’s ‘softly-softly ’ diplomacy

President Donald Trump’s recently-issued National Security Strategy marks a decisive break in United States foreign policy. It also poses an...

19.12.2025 10

Robert G. Patman

Will the ‘Scandinavian sleep method’ really help me sleep?

It begins with two people, one blanket, and two very different ideas of what’s a comfortable sleeping temperature. By midnight, one partner is hot...

19.12.2025 1

Yaqoot Fatima

Friday essay: racism, misogyny and culture wars: Zadie Smith and Anne Enright help us make sense of troubling times

Essay collections gather a writer’s thoughts over time and can be read as an oblique form of memoir, one in which the self is revealed through a...

19.12.2025 1

Belinda Castles

Battleship Potemkin at 100: how the Soviet film redrew the boundaries of cinema

People crowd together in the sun. All smiles and waves. Joyous. Pandemonium erupts. Panic hits like a shockwave as those assembled swivel and bolt,...

19.12.2025 4

Alexander Howard

What’s the difference between deodorant and antiperspirant? Quite significant, actually

When summer hits, the combination of heat and activity often result in increased sweating. Sweat is great – it’s our personal evaporative cooling...

19.12.2025 1

Daniel Eldridge

Uh oh, my child just discovered the truth about Santa

Christmas can be a magical time of year for kids. Writing wish-lists, seeing Santa at the shops, leaving carrots for the reindeer out on the porch....

19.12.2025 2

Cher Mcgillivray

Just 2 in 3 patients are treated on time in emergency departments. Check how your public hospital performs

If you arrive at an emergency department (ED) today, you’ll be triaged. That’s a quick judgement about how urgently you need care. Those in crisis...

19.12.2025 1

Anam Bilgrami

Inequality alone doesn’t cause civil unrest – but internet access adds the crucial spark

The gap between rich and poor has reached historic highs. According to the World Inequality Report 2026, released in recent weeks, the richest 10%...

19.12.2025 2

Hassan F. Gholipour

Australia’s roads are full of giant cars, and everyone pays the price. What can be done?

You may have noticed — there’s a car-size inflation on Australian roads that some have nicknamed car “mobesity”. Most SUVs and utes from a...

19.12.2025 2

Milad Haghani

Albanese announces new crackdown on hate, in sweeping initiatives to combat antisemitism

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a suite of legislative and other action to combat antisemitism including new measures against hate...

18.12.2025 3

Michelle Grattan

Olivia Nuzzi didn’t report what she knew. Did that help RFK Jr become health secretary?

In the ten months since his confirmation as United States Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr has regularly made headlines. Last month, he...

18.12.2025 5

Kate Cantrell

What is the BRICS ‘UNIT’ – and could it really challenge the US dollar?

At a major summit in Russia last year, a banknote was unveiled that carried more symbolism than monetary value. It hinted at the growing ambitions...

18.12.2025 2

Chris Ogden

How much does it cost to end rough sleeping? An Australian-first study may have just found out

Homelessness is a growing issue in Australia. Data released last week by the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare show 350 requests for...

18.12.2025 10

Katrina Raynor

Why does my hip hurt? Hip pain can have many causes and mostly doesn’t require surgery

You can feel hip pain at any stage of life, including childhood, young adulthood and the middle years. This can come as a surprise; many people...

18.12.2025 2

Charlotte Ganderton

Don’t talk – listen. Why communities affected by forever chemicals in water must be heard

Until recently, Australia’s efforts to tackle “forever chemical” pollution focused on highly polluted firefighting and defence sites. But last...

18.12.2025 10

Matthew Kearnes

How misreading Google Trends is fuelling Bondi attack conspiracy theories

In the wake of Sunday’s tragic Bondi shooting, conspiracy theories and deliberate misinformation have spread on social media. One thing some people...

18.12.2025 3

Jacques Raubenheimer

Will the Australian dollar keep rising in 2026? 3 factors to watch in the new year

After several years of steadily declining, the Australian dollar staged a meaningful recovery in 2025, culminating in a two-cent rally over the...

18.12.2025 20

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Sources

Newspaper Columnists

It’s (not) a new bike! How to manage kids’ gift expectations at Christmas

Elizabeth Westrupp

What did Australians watch on TV on Christmas Eve 1960?

Kit Macfarlane

We know about Jesus as a baby, and as a man. But what kind of child was he?

Robyn J. Whitaker

‘Never move around a flaming dessert’: a scientist explains the chemistry of a Christmas pudding

Nathan Kilah

Most of NZ’s flowering plants grow nowhere else – and Christmas falls in peak blooming season

Philip Garnock-Jones

Why mangoes fall before they’re ripe – and how science is helping them hang on

Sophie Jones

Ice baths and marathons: our modern obsession with ‘wellness’ is driven by ancient instincts

Samuel Cornell

Celia Paul and Stephanie Radok have devoted their lives to making art – and writing about it

Carol Lefevre

Search engines will soon start filtering adult content under new eSafety rules

Lisa M. Given

Should kids at least do a little bit of school work over the holidays?

Sarah Jefferson

Want to get your teens reading books this summer? 7 teens share their favourite books in 2025

Kate Douglas

What world was Jesus born into? A historian describes the turbulent times of the real nativity

Joan Taylor

Terror, androgyny and benevolence: a brief history of angels in Christianity

Philip C. Almond

Could Settlers of Catan make you a better strategist?

Nelly Liyanagamage

Don’t drive the sleigh on your own: 5 tested management tips for surviving Christmas like a boss

Candice Harris

Albanese government announces gas reservation plan to address supply and price

Michelle Grattan

View from The Hill: Has Albanese misjudged the public mood or is he fearful of a royal commission?

Michelle Grattan

Scammers won’t take a break over Christmas. Here’s how to make a plan with your family to stay safe

Cassandra Cross

Disaster after disaster: do we have enough raw materials to ‘build back better’?

Missaka Nandalochana Hettiarachchi

No gym or regular routine? Here’s how to stay fit over the holiday break

Joanna Nicholas

The macabre imagination and erratic life of the man behind Christmas story The Nutcracker

Eric Parisot

Who was Amelia Frank? The life of a forgotten physicist

Peter Jacobson

More than just being well: teens and Gen Z are redefining what it means to be healthy

Susanna Trnka

When disasters strike, home batteries could be a lifeline

Jamshid Aghaei

Food is belonging, otherness and a ‘glorious addiction’ for Melissa Leong and Candice Chung

Lauren Samuelsson

Australia’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies to be reviewed post Bondi

Michelle Grattan

Olivia Nuzzi didn’t report what she knew about RFK Jr – could she have stopped his rise?

Kate Cantrell

A virtual reality tool I developed is helping Indigenous people connect with Country

Kevin Taylor

Albanese announces national gun buyback scheme

Michelle Grattan

What the hyperproduction of AI slop is doing to science

Vitomir Kovanovic

Chris Wallace-Crabbe was a poet of international renown, a beloved teacher and a generous man

David Mccooey

Should I pour this down the sink? (Probably not, and here’s why)

Faisal Hai

Dunedin’s inner-city greening project shows even small spaces can be wildlife havens

Jacqueline Theis

Trump’s new security strategy exposes the limits of NZ’s ‘softly-softly ’ diplomacy

Robert G. Patman

Will the ‘Scandinavian sleep method’ really help me sleep?

Yaqoot Fatima

Friday essay: racism, misogyny and culture wars: Zadie Smith and Anne Enright help us make sense of troubling times

Belinda Castles

Battleship Potemkin at 100: how the Soviet film redrew the boundaries of cinema

Alexander Howard

What’s the difference between deodorant and antiperspirant? Quite significant, actually

Daniel Eldridge

Uh oh, my child just discovered the truth about Santa