The Hoon

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guest Cathrine Dyer about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics here, along with special guest Dileepa Fonseka , who is a columnist and reporter for BusinessDesk-$.
This week:
* Bernard and Peter began with a chat about the Iran war, the fuel crisis and Winston Peters’ move to block a ‘globalist’ WHO measure.
* Bernard and Peter then spoke with Cathrine about increased demand for EVs and whether the fuel crisis represented a tipping point for climate action.
* Then Bernard, Peter and Dileepa talked about the fuel crisis.
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 last 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. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)
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

Last week I hosted a ‘Hoon’ on Substack Live previewing The Reality of Everything symposium to be held at Victoria University of Wellington on June 26, which will examine the interconnected crises of climate change, energy, water & food constraints, economic instability & public health.
I was joined by regular Hoon guest Cathrine Dyer, conference speaker and Vic Uni Professor of Climate Change James Renwick and climate scientist Andy Reisinger, speaking independently and not in his role as a Climate Change Commissioner.
We started by talking about the need for the Symposium and referring to the National Emergency Briefing held in the UK last year, including an address by Zennström Professor of Climate and Energy at Uppsala University and Chair of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester, Professor Kevin Anderson. The video of his address is below via Youtube.
We talked about the intersection of climate change with other crises, the realities of climate science, the urgency of action, and the systemic changes needed to address the climate crisis.
Here’s Catherine’s substack post announcing the conference.
And a follow-up post with the latest details.
Here’s the chapters in the video above:
00:00 Introduction to Climate Change and the Reality of Everything Conference
01:25 Overview of the Reality of Everything Conference
02:17 Insights from the UK National Emergency Briefing
04:49 The Current State of Global Warming
07:31 The Impacts of Climate Change and Tipping Points
10:58 Radical Transformations Required for a Sustainable Future
14:12 The Reality of Climate Change and Public Awareness
16:57 The Necessity of Rapid Change
19:33 The Consequences of Inaction
22:18 Engaging Politicians and the Public
24:44 The Role of Corporations and Governance
27:15 Exploring Solutions at the Conference
Thank you Susan St John, Mike Joy, Paul Singh, Melanie, Brian Rathbone, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.


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

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics here, along with special guest Helen Clark.
This week:
* Bernard and Peter began with a chat about the Iran war, New Zealand’s looming fuel supply issues and Marsden Point.
* Bernard then spoke with Cathrine about new research confirming an acceleration of climate change, about research showing a rise in carbon dioxide in bloodstreams, and the links between the Middle East conflicts and climate change.
* Then Bernard, Peter, Robert and Helen talked about the current mess in the Middle East, New Zealand’s weak response, our health system and an upcoming play about Helen Clark called ‘Helen Clark in Six Outfits’
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 last 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. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)
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

I spoke with Green Co-Leader Chloe Swarbrick last night in a Substack Live Video for over 150 subscribers about the urgent need to decarbonise & provide housing, along with challenging the bipartisan assumptions about the size of Government and Government debt to GDP — the ‘30-30’ rule. We also talked about migration policy and population growth.
The full interview is above for all.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Context Setting
07:22 Fuel Crisis and Government Response
10:43 Housing Crisis and Emergency Solutions
13:20 Economic Policy and the 30-30 Rule
19:19 Debt Management and Economic Stability
24:15 Electrifying the Economy and Climate Change
27:28 Population Growth and Migration Policy
Cheers
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

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics here, along with special guest historian and author Jonathan Lyons.
This week:
* Bernard and Peter began with a discussion about deaths of a record 129 journalists reported in 2025 by the Committee to Protect Journalists, mostly in Gaza, and the risks of it worsening in an extended war in the Middle East.
* Bernard and Peter talked about New Zealand’s lack of resilience to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz for both diesel and fertiliser.
* Bernard, Peter and Cathrine talked about the impending dropping of clean car standards and the connections between war and climate change.
* Bernard, Peter, Robert and Jonathan talked about the implications from the widening war in the Middle East, including Israel’s role and Iran’s history.
Jonathan has written these books on Iran: The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization, and, Islam Through Western Eyes: From the Crusades to the War on Terrorism.
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 last 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. Remember, all students and teachers who sign up for the free version with their .ac.nz and .school.nz email accounts are automatically upgraded to the paid version for free. Also, here’s a couple of special offers: $3/month or $30/year for under 30s & $6.50/month or $65/year for over 65s who rent.)
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