From left to right: Alexia Russell, Sharon Brettkelly, Davina Zimmer, Gwen McClure and Amanda Gillies Photo: Cole Eastham-Farrelly
As the year draws to a close, The Detail looks back at 12 months of deep dives, sharp analysis, and the kinds of conversations that helped New Zealanders make sense of a turbulent, fast-moving world
If 2025 had a national soundtrack, it would be a layered mix of money worries, power struggles, climate shocks, consumer battles, and sporting turbulence.
And The Detail has spent the year listening to each beat, producing a full deep-dive look at each genre, offering not just a record of what has happened but a guide to understanding how - and why - it matters.
The team - Alexia Russell, Amanda Gillies, Davina Zimmer, Gwen McClure, and Sharon Brettkelly - has worked to slow down the news cycle just enough to understand it.
We have gone to the experts - economists, environmentalists, journalists, CEOs, lawyers, doctors, among others - to untangle the complexities of financial policy, to reveal the human stories behind climate change, to hold those in power to account, and to examine sporting wins and losses - and, boy, those losses on the world stage have hurt.
We have tried to guide listeners through the wide-ranging ripple effects of the cost-of-living crunch that has refused to ease, and to tap into the growing frustrations of New Zealanders trying to navigate both online scams and advances.
We have explored why environmental decisions have become some of the most decisive - and divisive - political flashpoints.
Sharon Brettkelly also travelled to Taiwan, interviewing locals about what it is like to live in the shadow of China and to face a possible invasion.
In central Taipei. Photo: Sharon Brettkelly
Once a year in Taiwan, she discovered, air raid sirens ring out in a warning to residents to take cover against an attack. Locals know the drill because it has been going on for years.
And while she was there, she caught up with Mark Hanson, a Taiwan-based New Zealand journalist, about the onslaught of disinformation, looking at claims that mainland China uses influencers, television stars, offshore "content farms" and generative artificial intelligence to swamp the island state with disinformation.
Her international travels also took her to Jordan, where the tourism industry propping up the country's economy has been all but decimated by the war in neighbouring Israel.
It may have been peak tourist season during her visit, but visitor numbers were "very weak", hurting everyone from Bedouin guides to the horse and donkey owners whose livelihoods are in ruins.
The war in Gaza has severely impacted Jordan's tourism industry. Photo: Pietra Brettkelly
A 2025 highlight for Brettkelly was her interview with the young heroes behind a mercy dash to Antarctica to rescue a patient who needed urgent medical care. Brettkelly delved into the life and death decisions made, and what happens when you get beyond the point of safe return, and the weather turns bad.
Amanda Gillies covered the long and chaotic Tom Phillips saga that captured a global audience and ended in a hail of bullets.
The morning after the wanted father was shot dead by police, she spoke to Stuff journalist Tony Wall, who's followed the story since day one, and who was on the ground in Marokopa just hours after the fatal shooting, making his way there via a goat track after roads were closed off.
It was The Detail's most listened to podcast for the year, by quite some distance.
Gillies also took the country's political temperature, a year out from the next general election, revealing New Zealand is feeling restless and tired, not just of politics, but of politicians.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins. Photo: RNZ
The public mood is "one of disillusionment with a lot of the political scene, frankly", former political editor turned RNZ investigative reporter and host Guyon Espiner told Gillies.
Her sporting episodes ranged from the All Blacks' evolving identity and the resurgence of women's sport, to match fixing and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), described as a silent killer - a dark and devastating side of contact sport that is only revealed after death.
Among those who spoke to Gillies were top sports journalists and commentators Suzanne McFadden, Rikki Swannell, Dana Johannsen, Dylan Cleaver, Phil Gifford, Elliott Smith, and Jamie Wall.
Alexia Russell tackled a subject most people don't want to talk about - their death and post-mortem wishes. But as she pointed out, there are so many reasons to have that conversation, and to write a will.
She spoke to a couple who learned the hard way what happens when you don't have a will, and to the Public Trust about the costs, procedures, and pitfalls involved when drawing up - or putting off - a will.
'Funding a good death' was the headline on Russell's story on the woefully underfunded palliative care system.
Yes, she said at the time, it was "another story about the stretched New Zealand health service", but it affects 89 percent of us who will die naturally and will require nursing at the end of their lives.
She revealed why the palliative care sector, much of it provided through the efforts of volunteers, has felt under attack.
Sue Ira says healthy, uncompacted soils are nature’s quiet way of keeping the water cycle working as it should. Photo: Davina Zimmer
And Russell wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty for a podcast on stormwater solutions lying in the soil.
She spoke to an industry expert in water-sensitive design - who had a spade in hand for the interview - about raising awareness of how we treat the most fundamental rain sponge in our cities - soil.
Natural disasters, including Auckland's Anniversary weekend floods in 2023 and the Christchurch earthquakes, have prompted some regions to rethink flooding issues.
The soil found in new development areas has often been compacted so tightly that it's lost all its nutrients and sponge-like capacity to absorb water. Photo: Davina Zimmer
On a lighter note, Russell caught up with Kiwi actor Bruce Hopkins, who played Gamling in The Lord of the Rings, and who gave her an exclusive insight into the mateship among the cast behind this ground-breaking and loved trilogy.
With a tape recorder in hand, he reunited with most of the core cast at a fantasy fan convention in London and told Russell he was blown away 25 years ago by the camaraderie on the original set, and those bonds are still in place. Fans were delighted.
Just weeks before Christmas, Gwen McClure looked at the terror under the tree - the toys that can kill.
In the wake of the asbestos-contaminated sand, toy recalls, and children's products failing safety tests, she asked how to shop for your kids this festive season.
With the cost of living sky-high, McClure appreciated that there is temptation to turn to cheap international e-commerce sites. But Gemma Rasmussen, Consumer NZ's head of research and advocacy, gave her one piece of advice on that for listeners: don't.
Consumer New Zealand and McClure also examined sunscreen brands, highlighting 16 of 20 tested products that came back lower than their SPF labels.
Yet, it didn't lead to them being pulled from New Zealand shelves.
The episode explained the laws around sunscreen and where enforcement falls short, and what consumers can do to ensure they're getting good protection from their sunscreens.
Another podcast by McClure delved into the health crisis being pushed by a drug crisis in Fiji.
A growing HIV outbreak there is being driven by a methamphetamine crisis, and an expert told McClure that the country could become a semi-Narco state.
Simon Peterson, Chief Customs Officer, Child Exploitation Operations Team Photo: Greenstone
When Davina Zimmer did a podcast episode about how Customs tries to stop child sexual exploitation material at our borders, listeners were in touch, wanting to know what happens to the perpetrators.
So she talked to two experts about the next steps, after the material is found, and what needs to change in New Zealand's approach to handling the crisis.
Zimmer also looked into burnout, which she found out is increasingly becoming the norm, with a multitude of factors pushing New Zealanders across the country to breaking point. Think job insecurity, tight economic times, and pressure to always be on the clock.
But one expert says the tide is changing with a new generation entering the workforce, who are prioritising health and wellbeing.
Turtles, the pet turned pest, were another one in Zimmer's file this year.
She spoke to the head of Natural Environment Specialist Services at Auckland Council, and revealed that turtles are disturbing native wildlife, muddying waterways, and killing the occasional possum, cat, or rabbit along the way.
Donna Moot has been running her turtle rescue for almost 20 years. Photo: Supplied
And that brings to an end the snapshot of our "news year" soundtrack. It had a little bit of everything, with a blended thump of household budgets, the clash of politics, the swell of environment stories, the sting of consumer pressures and the roar of sport.
The team thanks every person who gave up their time to share their knowledge and insight for a podcast this year; it's always appreciated. A special shout-out to guest podcast hosts Connor McLay, Susana Lei'ataua, and Jimmy Ellingham, and also to the journalists at Newsroom, who were regular guests.
The Detail was honoured to be named the best news and current affairs podcast at the 2025 NZ Radio and Podcast Awards, and to receive Gold for Best Current Affairs Podcast at the 2025 NZ Podcast Awards.
Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.
You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.