The Best of 2025

How do we explain 2025? Stuff’s Explainer Editor Lloyd Burr is here to, well, explain. Plus brioche buns, niche quiche and being 'unclaimed treasure'

How three days at business school saw Ella Monnery become one of New Zealand’s biggest singing voices - and how she’s overcoming self-doubt in her solo era

Can you imagine playing George Washington 700 times in one of the world’s biggest musicals? Matu Ngaropo tells all about Hamilton (the musical, not the town)

Niki Bezzant on 'menowashing', ageism, and her mission to empower midlife women to become vibrant, kick-arse old ladies

Nude Paul, Yacht Paul, Gin Paul, The Chase Paul, Breakfast Paul, Palm Springs Paul: Get to know who Paul Henry really is

Claire Turnbull on burnout, food battles and taking back control of our brains (aka GET OFF YOUR SCREENS!)

From 'useless' to unstoppable: René Heyde’s remarkable journey from trauma to Commonwealth Games glory - and beyond

Portia Woodman-Wickliffe on RWC heartbreak, why the Black Ferns are so special, and what life after rugby might hold - from hairdressing to midwifery and babies

How Lisette Reymer became an accidental war correspondent

Teacher and writer Sara Qasem on being Palestinian and living with grief after losing her father in the March 15 terror attacks

Veteran activist Tāme Iti on racism, te reo Māori, protesting, and how art saved his life

Jon Bridges on the rising distrust in the media, being a middle-aged man in lycra, and the correct use of an apostrophe

Rebecca Nelson: from street busking to singing for King Charles and being shoulder-tapped by the Navy - and the All Black who thought she was miming

Slingshot founder Annette Presley on helping young women, ambition, Telecom battles and the cost of success

Matt Watson’s painful epiphany that changed the course of his career - and what he’d do to overhaul New Zealand’s commercial fishing industry

Dame Jacinda Ardern on leadership, religion, kindness, the state of the world, and Rhythm and Vines

Meet Val Smith – New Zealand’s most-capped athlete and two-time lawn bowls world champion

Trailblazing drum and bass artist MC Tali on how her fighting spirit drives her past all the people who say no: 'Proving people wrong has always been satisfying'

Dame Julie Christie: 37 years of TV, from reality shows to documentaries, and the power of never taking ‘no’ for an answer