The Hoon

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics with special guests, including:
* International affairs expert Dr Geoffrey Miller, the author of the Gulf States Insights substack, talking about the recent Mecca Agreement; and,
* Andy Reisinger, an Associate Professor at Australian National University, and lead author of the mitigation chapter of a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP)report titled: Limiting Overshoot, which finds the climate is set to overshoot the 1.5°C of global warming the world agreed not to go over, and will need to cool it down ASAP.
Regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman took a break this week, but will be back next year.
During the podcast, we pointed to Geoffrey’s most recent piece:
Also, Peter referred to this New Yorker podcast during the discussion:
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.
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

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-host Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics. Bernard was taking a break.
In this week’s edition:
* Author and polymath Turi Munthe was on from Rome to talk about his new book: Why We Think What We Think: The Unexpected Origins of Our Deepest Beliefs. It will make you think. If you like the work of Yuval Noah Hariri you will love Turi.
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.
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

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics.
In this week’s edition:
* Bernard and Peter talked about developments in New Zealand’s political economy in the last week, including the winter flu crisis stress on an already-stressed hospital system, along with the deaths from cold of three homeless people;
* Peter, Bernard and Catherine then talked about Cathrine’s article for The Conversation with Massey Uni’s Robert McLachlan that asked: Why is NZ spending far more on responding to climate disasters than on reducing future risk?. Cathrine talked about this paper on blame avoidance.
* Peter, Bernard and Robert then talked about the latest US sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and New Zealand’s shameful silence on the issue, along with the latest SIS report on China’s espionage in New Zealand.
* Peter mentioned this book by Sam Dalrymple: Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia.
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.
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

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics.
This edition also included discussions with special guests Jonathan Lyons, PhD on Iran and NZME’s Fran O’Sullivan.
* Bernard and Peter talked about the developments in New Zealand’s political economy in the last week, including PM Christopher Luxon’s second win in a caucus confidence vote in four months.
* Peter, Bernard and Catherine then talked about the Climate Commission’s latest report on where the Government was failing to achieve its legislated emissions reduction goals, and the idea of Jevons Paradox. Cathrine referred to this IMF paper on the issue.
* Peter mentioned this article from the FT-$ (gift) article from Pilita Clark on ‘How to stop global warming.’
* Peter, Bernard, Robert and Jonathan then talked about Iran’s apparent victory over the United States, which Jonathan will be writing about on his Substack Signal to Noise: History. Philosophy. Commentary.
* Peter, Bernard and Fran then talked about the National Caucus’s leadership debate and the differences between Helen Clark, John Key and Christopher Luxon. They discussed Fran’s column in the NZ Herald-$ on how Clark handled Foreign Minister Winston Peters when they were in Government together.
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.
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

The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night featured co-hosts Bernard Hickey and Peter Bale talking with regular guests Cathrine Dyer and Robert Patman about geopolitics, the economy, climate change and politics.
This edition also included discussions with special guest Don Christie, the MD of Catalyst IT, who talked about Catalyst’s manifesto for Election 2026, and the need for sovereignty around Aotearoa’s data and resilience around our data centres.
* Bernard and Peter talked about the developments in New Zealand’s political economy in the last week, including PM Christopher Luxon’s surprise decision yesterday to commit National to holding a referendum on MMP, without talking to his coalition partners or his caucus about it, and the latest figures showing youth employment under-utilisation of 37%.
* Peter, Bernard, Catherine and Don then talked about the implications of big data centres in New Zealand, and the need for local data sovereignty and resilience.
* Peter mentioned articles from The Guardian and FT-$ (gift) as useful reads on the Ceuta migration issue.
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.
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