The Featherston Booktown Podcast

Visionary psychological coach Gilbert Enoka changed the way the All Blacks played. Having the highest winning record of any professional sports team in history is only possible because they leave nothing to chance. Their winning mindset and resilience are as important as their training, and Gilbert Enoka was their secret weapon. Bob Francis joined Gilbert on the couch to discuss his new book, Beco...

A small book called Imagining Decolonisation has been a notable bestseller in New Zealand. People want to know more about decolonisation and colonisation, but often don’t know where to start. Our expert panel came together for a fascinating kōrero on this topic: Papawai Marae Kaumātua Paora Ammunson (Ngāti Moe, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Rangitāne, Te Arawa); writer and Te Tiriti o Waitangi pol...

One of New Zealand’s biggest constitutional issues is how state law and tikanga Māori intersect. Join tikanga expert and lawyer Te Raumawhitu Kupenga as he unpacks this with a distinguished panel: former High Court Judge, Māori Land Court Chief Judge and longtime Waitangi Tribunal Chair Tā Edward Taihakurei Durie; Māori rights champion, Treaty expert and lawyer Annette Sykes; Treaty and public law...

Vincent O’Malley writes that war in the Waikato between July 1863 and April 1864 ‘goes to the very core of who we are as a nation’. The crippling legacy was loss of life, economic and cultural deprivation, land confiscation and over 150 years of ignored hurt and anguish. This kōrero – featuring historians and academics Tom Roa (Waikato, Ngāti Maniapoto), Joanna Kidman (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Rauka...

Norwegian author Lars Mytting’s book Norwegian Wood – the definitive woodcutter’s bible to preparing firewood – spread like wildfire around the world. No wonder, when our relationship with fire is ancient and universal and the age-old rituals around chopping and stacking wood continue to be a part of 21st-century life. Lars Mytting was in conversation with John Campbell. Recorded at the 2025 Feath...

Today’s episode was recorded at a special event at The Royal Hotel in Featherston in November 2025, where journalist and author Ali Mau was in conversation with fellow journalist Melody Thomas.  It was a fascinating discussion that was equal parts provocative, honest, and amusing. Ali’s memoir, No Words for This, is powerful, raw and beautifully written. Many thanks to our partners Hedley’s Books...

For 10 years, Featherston Booktown has featured the best of this country’s literary talent. Our gala night birthday party gathered 10 of the hundreds of writers who’ve yarned and shared with us so generously. Each one read from work – published or unpublished – that they think best expresses them and what they want to say to the world. Anything goes! The 10 out of 10 were: Noelle McCarthy • Chris...

The hostile culture of Parliament has broken people and careers. Is there a better way to conduct the politics of the nation? Can our adversarial political system be changed? Former MPs debated the motion: Kiri Allan (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Rarawa), Marilyn Waring, Ron Mark (Ron’s iwi include: Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa) and Rick Barker. Our speaker wa...

The radical economic reforms of the Fourth Labour Government 40 years ago, known as Rogernomics, had a devastating impact on rural communities, including Wairarapa. The dollar was floated, agricultural subsidies removed, GST introduced, forests sold and state-owned enterprises corporatised. The Post editor Tracy Watkins discussed the reforms with Wairarapa leaders Liz Mellish (Te Ātiawa, Taranaki,...

No country on the planet comes close to Ireland as a literary powerhouse. It has produced an impressive list of Nobel Laureates and Booker Prize winners and has a booming publishing scene, and now Ireland’s Granard Booktown Festival has a place on the map. What’s the secret behind Ireland’s literary success? How is it nurtured and sustained? Luck or pluck? Exploring these questions with chair Clai...

Why do men, especially in rural areas, struggle to talk about their problems? What’s standing in the way? Are the men of today okay, and how do they keep themselves well? This was a candid conversation about masculinity, society, health, wealth, life, death and everything in between, featuring writers and personalities Matt Heath and Paddy Gower; Federated Farmers President and YOLO Farmer Wayne L...

When singer Mel Parsons and author Becky Manawatu exploded onto the Aotearoa arts scene, there was nowhere more proud than Westport. Mel and Becky grew up in and around Westport and were in the same year at Buller High School. Both of them have recently launched exciting new work: Sabotage and Kataraina. Anika Moa (Ngāpuhi, Te Aupōuri) asked two of Aotearoa’s best how much they inspire each other...

Lars Mytting is a writing phenomenon. He’s one of Norway’s most acclaimed writers, with more than two million books sold, and available in 24 languages. On publication, his fiction ignites a global reading frenzy, but Lars’ first success was Norwegian Wood, written about ‘chopping, stacking and drying wood in the Scandinavian way’. Lars spoke to New Zealand novelist Cristina Sanders, a descendant...

Saraid de Silva’s bestselling Amma, longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize, is one of a stream of successes for Sri Lankan New Zealand authors: romesh dissanayake launched a novel and a poetry collection in 2024, and Brannavan Gnanalingam launched The Life and Opinions of Kartik Popat, following his Ockham-shortlisted Sodden Downstream and Ngaio Marsh winner Sprigs. Dinithi Bowatte asked wh...

Waiata are more than songs; they are a way of preserving history, culture and language by passing them down through generations. Waiata Māori connect people to whenua, whakapapa and whānau. Join a waiata kōrero with our panel of experts: Ria Hall (Ngāi te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui), Anika Moa (Ngāpuhi,Te Aupōuri) and Warren Maxwell (Tūhoe, Kahungunu, Ngāi Te Rangi and Scotland). Re...

Ruth Shaw is on a mission to help rural women sort their prolapses, a common, disruptive and often embarrassing condition that can be prevented with the right treatment. She writes about it in part two of her provocative and funny memoir Three Wee Bookshops at the End of the World, which launched at Featherston Booktown. Ruth was in conversation with Kristy McGregor, editor of Shepherdess magazine...

New Zealand has had a long and storied love affair with beer, the world’s oldest drink. In Continuous Ferment, Greg Ryan charts that story – why we love it, why we love so much of it and how our tastes have changed. He talked with journalist and beer lover Denise Garland about a history “of rogues and inventors, big business power and small business determination, national debate and social upheav...

Book collecting is variously described as a passion, an obsession and even a disease. Bookselling the same. Bookseller Ruth Shaw (Bookshop Dogs) and book collector Tony Eyre (The Book Collector) talked about the affliction/gift of bibliophilia, where it’s taken them in their lives and the dilemma of where to put all the books. Fellow bibliophile and Masterton bookseller David Hedley was in the cha...

It has been said the New Zealand Wars were more significant in shaping our country than Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This session explores whether that is true and digs deeper into a troubled time in our history. With sociology academic Joanna Kidman (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Raukawa), historians and authors Chris Pugsley and Vincent O’Malley, former director of the Waitangi Tribunal Buddy Mikaere (Ngāti P...

What does it mean to be a modern All Black, expected to perform at a mental and physical peak when player body mass has increased by 30% since the 1960s and new research is showing the horrifying impact of head injuries on rugby player brains? All Black 1000, Carl Hayman, wrote Head On after discovering his injuries had led to early-onset dementia. He joined his co-author Dylan Cleaver to talk abo...

Steve Braunias is an author, columnist, journalist and literary editor of Newsroom. He is also one of the country’s leading writers of satire and his 2021 book Missing Persons won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Non-Fiction. Linda Clark drilled down into what makes the Tauranga-born writer tick, including the feeling behind the writing of his latest book that he was a missing person himself. https:...

Tāme Iti (Ngāi Tūhoe, Waikato, Te Arawa) is known as many things – activist, artist, actor, author, terrorist and cyclist. He rose to prominence as a member of the protest group Ngā Tamatoa more than 40 years ago, becoming a key figure in the Māori protest movement and cultural renaissance. Community advocate and social change activist Denis O’Reilly was in conversation with one of Aotearoa New Ze...

Linda Clark and Moana Maniapoto are huge admirers of each other’s work. Fan girls, even. Moana is a musician, activist and journalist, and Linda is a lawyer, writer, and former broadcaster. In a delightful kōrero of the heart and mind, the two women interviewed each other about the various strands that make up their lives and how they weave them into their own kete to carry the gifts of the world...

Be thrilled and amazed by spoken word poetry created by Pasifika rangatahi at a three-day Young Readers Programme workshop and brought to the public for the first time. Poet Nafanua Kersel hosted the event, which also included more poetry readings and a panel talanoa about the life and dreams of the South Auckland Poets’ Collective with co-founders Grace Teuila Taylor, Ramon Narayan, Daren “dk” Ka...

Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders are storytellers who use music as their medium, and coming together as collaborators has taken them in new and exciting directions. “These songs just started appearing out of the kitchen air,” said Davidson, “and we were grabbing them as fast as we could.” They talked with Lucy Cooper at the Karukatea Festival in May 2024 about “the strange territory” they share...