The Unmaking - Episode Zero

In early 2025, I found myself towing an old horsefloat crammed full of toys, tools and memories from more than two decades of life in Germany, south through Aotearoa New Zealand. I was returning to Wānaka, closing a loop of more than a quarter century.That drive became the seed of this podcast.I’m recording this, episode zero, from Albert Town, Wānaka, looking out over the Mata-Au Clutha River. It’s the reverse view of the one I had in January 2025, swimming in the river on my first day back in Wānaka this millennium. That was even before I’d made the decision to move here (I was visiting to attend my niece’s wedding over a long weekend) - I simply thought: imagine living in that cool little 50’s crib. Two days later I’d made the decision to move down here, and two weeks later that exact crib serendipitously came up to rent (at an affordable rate due to its dilapidated condition!) listed online an hour before I was lucky enough to stumble across it. I moved in March 2025, and have since taken significant inspiration and solace from those big skies, epic sunrises and light shows, and that slow, ever-moving river.The Unmaking is a conversation series about the work behind the work - the adaptations and transformations sometimes necessary in creative practice. The decisions, doubts, turning points and pivots that don’t usually make it into people’s public stories. Each episode, I sit down with someone who has had to unmake something in order to move forward: a way of being, seeing or doing.Some names you’ll recognise. Others you won’t, yet.Recorded inside Flø, a former rental horsefloat we converted into a mobile studio over summer, at other places of significance to myself or my guests. Season One launches Winter 2026. Ten episodes.If you’re in the middle of your own unmaking, you’ve been through one, or you’re drawn to people who choose the harder, slower path, you’re in the right place. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theunmakingpodcast.substack.com