So, Brooke Van Velden, this is your life...

Growing up I used to love a show called This Is Your Life. Journalist Mike Munro would hold a giant red book and lovingly ambush a well-known Australian. My favourite episode was about Steve Irwin. For an hour, Steve Irwin saw his impact on the world, on his community, on

How to help your community from your desk

The sun is shining (in some places) and it's the first day of the week - it's the perfect time to help your community! On the weekend we had the most gorgeous fundraiser. Honestly, it just filled my cup so much. It was so joyous. All

FNC - Second Spring Screaming

Welcome to Friday Night Chats! We are HERE! That's good eh? Also, the podcast!

Surviving a broken health system (with gratitude)

Last month, our friend Helen Gilby was diagnosed with cancer. She recently had surgery to begin her treatment. There were complications, and Helen updated us with the following dispatch from the hospital. Helen would like to thank you all for the outpouring of support and really tangible help you'

Haven’t we already been 'inside' the Manosphere?

In Louis Theroux's 2025 documentary film The Settlers, Theroux does what he does best. He lets his grotesque subjects show their monstrous views simply by holding back and letting them feel safe enough to share them. In The Settlers, the mentality of Israeli men and women who believe

FNC - Crappy journalists and context collapse and a PODCAST?!

Welcome to Friday Night Chats! How are you? It's been A Week. Not helped by a ridiculous beat-up by a newspaper trying to get readers off the back of my writing. So let’s go there…This time we did a podcast AS WELL. Just for our paid

Please congratulate the industry for not giving dogs meth

A few weeks ago, the greyhound racing lobby quietly began an advertising campaign to try to save their extremely profitable industry. This included posters so out of touch that they were almost laughable. They featured AI-generated images of sad-looking people (like 'Colin', who actually looked like your typical

I tried to live like Chelsea Winter

Early Thursday, I began receiving the same screenshot over and over. It was from influencer chef Chelsea Winter's Instagram Stories, which described her morning routine. It was so relatable that about 150 mothers sent it to me. Feel free to skip to the comments if you read this

The issue this government hopes you forget about

On Friday, all over Aotearoa, workers ranging from midwives to teachers to nurses wore purple to show their support for pay equity. Today is International Women's Day. We're going to see a lot of MPs who have destroyed the chance for so many women in this

The cry of a Gazan woman

Kia ora, today is International Women’s Day and while we rightly talk about pay equity and our government’s attack on women’s rights in Aotearoa - we must never forget the plight of our sisters in Palestine. I have gotten to know Yasmin over the last year and

FNC - Leaving home 🫣

The Brighter Future

What would this country look like in a decade or so if we actually did what so desperately needs doing?