PODCAST · news
Head2Head
by Bryan Bruce Investigates
An Aotearoa New Zealand based podcast series featuring interviews with community leaders and influencers about the big issues facing us today and what we could do to solve them and create a better tomorrow. bryanbruce.substack.com
Episodes
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Head 2 Head EP 75 Dr Gary Payinda Labour Candidate For Whangarei
Northland Specialist Emergency Doctor and outspoken public health advocate Gary Payinda has just become The Labour Party Candidate for Whangarei for the upcoming General Election. Why has he entered politics? Why Labour? What does he believe ? And what does he want to do to improve the lives of…
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Head2Head Ep 74 Sam Kivi of LETS ( Or How To Gain Control Of Our Electricity Supply.)
About a month ago I posed the Big Question - Should We Buy Back Our Electricity Network? and one of my readers, who took part in that poll, put me in touch with Sam Kivi. Sam is on the board of the Lyttleton Energy Transition Society (or LETS for short ) who are fostering sustainable independent...
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Ep: 73 Anne Hunt - Compulsory Care Orders
Yesterday I featured a documentary I made twenty-six years ago about how the State promised that people with mental disabilities would not be sent indefinitely to institutions but would be cared for in the community. Today, at least 65 mentally disabled New Zealanders are currently denied that...
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Ep 72 : Sally Hett - The Wellbeing Economy
The Wellbeing Economic Alliance Aotearoa (WEAll Aotearoa) isn’t a political party. It’s an independent “think and do” tank driven by the belief our economy should exist for the wellbeing of our people and the planet, and is working to make that happen. They take an evidence approach towards…
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Diabetes Awareness Podcast Interview with Dr Bryan Betty
November is Diabetes Awareness Action Month in which Diabetes New Zealand is calling attention to the rise in Diabetes amongst young people. You can find out more here: https://www.diabetesactionmonth.org.nz This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get...
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EP 71: Head2Head Dr Bryan Betty
In this episode I catch up with Dr Bryan Betty who is the Chair of General Practice New Zealand and is also a practicing GP in Cannons Creek Porirua, to discuss issues of concern to General Practitioners and Labour’s recent primary health proposals. This public journalism interview has been made...
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Ep 70 : Labour MP Kieran McAnulty
As part of my Head2Head series I have been interviewing politicians to find out a little about who they are and what they believe. Kieran McAnulty was a minister in the Ardern led government and is currently Labour’s Shadow Leader of The House and spokesperson for Housing, Infrastructure and…
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EP: 69 Ken Mair and Amokura Panoho on Rā Whakamana - day of solidarity.
In this interview I talk with two of the organisers of Rā Whakamana, an event happening next Tuesday the 28th of October 2025. It is a national day of solidarity between Māori, the Unions and Tangata Tiriti allies which coincides withe the 190th anniversary of He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga…
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Ep 67 : Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn Artivist
.Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn (Ngāti Kuri, Te Rarawa) was part of protest group Te Waka Hourua, who defaced (she says “redacted” ) Te Papa’s large wooden display panel of the English version of the Treaty of Waitangi in 2023 for which she was recently fined $1500. In this interview Catherine talks...
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Ep. 66 : The Wealth Chasm - Economist Dr Ganesh Rajaram Ahirao
I recently caught up with Dr Ganesh Rajaram Ahirao who was formerly the Research Director at BERL and Chair of the now disestablished Productivity Commission ,who has been analyzing data from Stats NZ on wealth distribution in our country - and what he has uncovered is truly alarming. You can…
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Ep 65 - Teanau Tuiono MP- Foreign Affairs Spokesperson for The Green Party of Aotearoa.
Is the Israeli government committing genocide in Gaza? What should we be doing to assist Ukraine? What’s gone wrong with the New Zealand- Cook Islands relatiomship ? Should we be a neutral country? And what do we need to know about Pacific politics and environmental issues? In this wide ranging…
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Monday is Hope Day - Sir Graeme and Lady Dingle
Last Friday I had the pleasure of talking with Sir Graeme Dingle and Lady Dingle - Jo-anne Wilkinson (pictured) who started the Graeme Dingle Foundation 30 years ago with the aim of improving the lives of young New Zealanders and helping them realise their full potential. The Foundation works…
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Ep 63 Action Station's Free Dental Care For All Campaign - Hana Pilkinton-Ching
Monday Is Hope Day Do you think everyone should be able to access free dental care? I do. It has always seemed ridiculous to me that if something goes wrong with any other part of your body you can get help through our public health system - but not teeth. Well, this week’s Monday Is Hope Day…
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Ep 62 - Chlöe Swarbrick - Co-Leader New Zealand Aotearoa Green Party
The Sunday Long Read and Listen I had the very enjoyable experience of interviewing Chlöe Swarbrick last Thursday. I’d never met or spoken with Chlöe before and I was taken by how the MP for Central Auckland and Co-Leader of the Greens, has carefully thought through in detail big issues such as...
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EP- 61 Labour MP Vanushi Walters
As part of my Head2Head series I have been interviewing politicians to find out a little about who they are,why thet got into politics, and what they believe. In this episode I meet Vanushi Walters who is Labour’s Shadow Attorney- General and an Associate Spokesperon on Foreign Affairs . We…
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EP 60 - Economist Ganesh Ahirao
Bryan Bruce catches up with Dr Ganesh Ahirao, former BERL Research Director and Chair of the now disestablished Productivity Commission , to talk about the direction and purpose of our Economy, privatisation concerns for our Public Health System and why Early Childhood Education is much more than...
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Ep 58 Jesus' Women Disciples - Professors Helen Bond and Joan Taylor
The Sunday Long Read gives way this week to a Sunday Long Watch and Long Listen. Last week I had the privilege of interviewing two Jesus and 1st Century historians – Professors Joan Taylor, currently in Wellington, and Prof. Helen Bond at the University of Edinburgh, who jointly authored and...
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Ep 57 - Blake Forbes and Paul Barlow
Today I am catching up with Blake Forbes and Paul Barlow Blake has a disability. He has spastic cerebral palsy with mild autism and ADHD, but that hasn’t stopped him running a very effective interview podcast called BFG (short for Blake Forbes Gentle) which he produces with co-host Paul Barlow ....
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EP 56 Head2Head Nick Ruane - Accessibility Advocate
Part of my job as a public interest journalist and documentary maker is to give a voice to people in our community who find it difficult to be heard. Disability access to houses and public buildings is one of those issues that doesn’t get enough attention in Aotearoa New Zealand, and as advocate...
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Ep 55 -Sarita Divis Executive Officer Child Poverty Action Group
As regular readers will know, Monday on my Susbstack is Hope day, and for over 30 years Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has been bringing hope to children living in our most deprived homes, by fighting for their rights to food, housing, health and education. They are an independent, registered...
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EP 54 -Hon Marama Davidson, Greens Co-Leader on the Dangers of The Regulatory Standards Bill.
The dull sounding Regulatory Standards Bill presents one of the gravest threats to our democratic way of life to ever come before our parliament. It is a Trogan Horse bill that pretends to be about transparency, but is in fact a power grab on behalf of David Setmours Corporate masters, and if...
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Ep 53 - Let's Make their 1978 Film Happen - interview with Director Isaac Lee and Co-Director April Phillips.
Last Monday I wrote a Hope post about two independent film makers who are trying to crowd fund the money to finish their self- funded feature film 1978 . They need $15,000 to do the post production and finish their film so it can be shown in cinemas up and down the country. As I write they have...
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EP 52 Head2Head - Dr Ganesh Nana- What is Productivity? Why does it matter and what is an economy for anyway?
Dr. Ganesh Nana is one of New Zealand’s most distinguished economists who has dedicated his career to addressing complex economic challenges. He was formerly BERL Research Director and Chair of the Productivity Commission Te Kōmihana Whai Hua o Aotearoa leveraging his expertise to advocate for...
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Ep 51 Head2Head - Passion and Purpose with Clinical Psychologist Dr Harold Hillman
Who am I? What do I stand for and believe? What is the purpose of my life? are all questions any thinking person will ask themselves at some point in their life’s journey. Am I happy living up to the image others have defined for me? Or am I unhappy because I am not being true to myself - what...
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EP 49 Peter Bruce - Iri How Plants Cool And Heal The Planet
Peter Bruce - Iri is a climate activist based in Whangarei who has written a quite remarkable book about the important role plants play in cooling our planet. He says we humans have degraded about half of the vegetation of land and oceans and thereby destabilising the climate and warming the...
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EP 48 Dr Gary Payinda - Save Our Public Health System Before It's Too Late!
Dr Gary Payinda is an outspoken Emergency Medical Specialist based in Northland In this Head2Head interview he spells out why patients are waiting so long to see a doctor in our overcrowded hospitals, and hundreds of thousands of us are on waiting lists for surgery. And what is the root cause of...
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EP 47 Melanie Nelson on the dangers of The Regulatory Standards Bill
Melanie Nelson has been deep diving into David Seymour’s very dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill and reveals how its real aim is to embed ACT’s libertarian agenda into our legislative process to the detriment of the public good. You can find out more about Melanie and her highly researched…
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Ep 46 Bernard Hickey on the Budget
I attended The Child Poverty Post Budget Hui yesterday and managed to catch up with economist Bernard Hickey for his take on the 2025 Willis budget. He is so informed and such a good communicator. If you don’t read or listen to any other analysis make sure you listen to his one. Please take 20...
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Ep 45 - Selwyn Manning creator of PodTalk.live
We live in a world where social media is expanding exponentially and dominated by tech giants such as Facebook, Google or X, who collect your data in order to exploit it. Which is why New Zealand developer Selwyn Manning has created PodTalk.live a community platform for Kiwis, like you and I, to...
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Episode 44- Economist Susan St John on rethinking Superannuation.
THE SUNDAY LONG READ (OR LISTEN ). It’s time to face the fact that our superannuation scheme is unsustainable. So what could we do to fix it? Associate Professor Susan St John has a viable answer. Listen to the podcast or read the transcription below. Bryan: Hello I’m Bryan Bruce, welcome to...
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Episode 43 -The Compassionate Economy
In this episode of Head2Head I talk with two remarkable political economists who are passionate and informed advocates of the “compassionate economy “ - the idea that economy should serve the people and not the other way around and is kinder to our life sustaining planet. Professor Liz Grant…
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Episode 42- Economist Prof Richard Wolff
On the eve of Trump imposing tariffs that will upend the world economy I interview renowned world political economist, and New York based, Prof Richard Wolff. He is a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachuesetts Amherst and a visiting professor in the graduate program in...
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Ep 41 Vulture Capitalism Grace Blakeley
Grace Blakeley is a British political economist, writer and commentator. She is a staff writer for Tribune Magazine and the author several books, the latest of which is Vulture Capitalism : Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom. It is a highly readable critique of modern...
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EP- 40 Ricardo Menéndez March, Greens MP
I contacted Ricardo a couple of weeks ago when NZ First MP Shane Jones shouted in parliament “Send the Mexicans home!” after Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said Green Party migrant MPs should "show some gratitude" for being in New Zealand. Why? Because I have never met Ricardo and I…
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Episode 39 Orange Sky Charity -Kat Doughty
Look at this ! Vans equipped with washing machines so that homeless people and folks experiencing hardship can get access to free laundry and shower services, plus have the opportunity for regular connection with other people. Isn’t that a brilliantly simple idea? You can find Orange Sky vans in…
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Episode 38 : Paul Hunt - former New Zealand Chief Human Rights Commissioner
In this episode of Head 2 Head I catch up with Paul Hunt who was New Zealand’s Chief Human Rights Commissioner between 2019 - 2024 and who is now Professor of Law at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex. Among the issues he raises is the need for human rights to be incorporated in our...
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Episode 37- Dr Tony Ellis Human Rights Lawyer
Dr Tony Ellis is a leading New Zealand and International Human Rights lawyer whose work has covered public and criminal law and is well know for compensation cases including prisoner’s rights including abuses and deaths while in custody. I met Tony some years ago when making an episode of The...
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Episode 36 - Dr Osman Mansoor
I talk vaccines, child mortality and the relationship between deprivation and life expectancy, with Dr Osman (Oz) Mansoor who is a public health medicine (PHM) specialist with national and international policy experience in immunization, programme design and implementation, and communicable…
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Episode 35 Mandy Henk - The Dark Times Academy
One of our reader community recently sent me a link to The Dark Times Academy, so I looked it up. https://darktimesacademy.co.nz It is jointly owned by Mandy Henk and Byron Clark, and is a community education project that puts teachers and students of all ages together with courses designed to...
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Episode 34 - Podcasters Blake Forbes & Paul Barlow
Blake Forbes has a disability. He has spastic cerebral palsy with mild autism and ADHD, but that hasn’t stopped him running a very effective interview podcast called BFG (short for Blake Forbes Gentle) which he produces with co-host Paul Barlow. Paul has a media background and, in addition to...
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Episode 33- Sergio Chaparro - on Tax as a Social Superpower.
I read a Tax Justice Network online report recently that stated New Zealand was one of 8 Countries that had refused to sign up to the United Nations Tax Convention . I thought, What’s that? Why haven’t I heard more about it through our mainstream media ? and Who are the Tax Justice Network…
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Episode 32- Emergency Doctor Gary Payinda on perserving life and assisting death.
Bryan Bruce and Emergency Doctor Gary Payinda talk about life and death issues- the challenges he faces in trying to preserve life in our hospital system plus his work in assisted day and why the law needs to modified because the current rules are not practical. Thanks to the generosity of my…
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Episode 31-Katherine Trebeck on having a Wellbeing Economy
Imagine an economy designed to serve people and planet rather than the other way around. Are there better, more sustainable, ways to run our economy? What kind of counrty do you want to live in? What’s an economy for anyway? These are kind of questions Dr Katherine Trebeck challenges us to ask if...
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Episode 30 - Economist Susan St. John - on the human cost of austerity.
In the wake of Treasury’s Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update, Associate Professor Susan St John gives her assessement of the government’s unnecessarily hard neoliberal economic austerity measures and how the Luxon/Willis administration has not learned the lessons of the 1990’s and the misery...
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Episode 29 - Melanie Nelson on fighting some destructive ACT legislation.
A couple of days ago I read a very interesting Substack article about a piece of trojan horse, David Seymour, legislation currently before parliament that had managed to slip completely under my radar and perhaps yours too. It was about the Regulatory Standards Bill and written by Melanie Nelson...
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Episode 27- Economist Dr Ganesh Nana-on challenging Government fiscal policy.
Last week a group of economists wrote to Prime Minister Luxon and Minister of Finance Willis to express their concern at the Government’s approach to fiscal policy, and their alarm at the consequences for the people and communities of New Zealand. In this episode of Head2Head I talk with the...
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Head 2 Head with Shamubeel Eaqub - Episode 26 Dollars and Sense.
Why is borrowing to give tax breaks stupid? How could we use some of our superannuation fund to build housing? What’s an economy for anyway? Shamubeel Eaqub has the gift of making economics understandable and often gives voice to common sense solutions for some of the problems that beset us…
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Episode 25 - Gareth Hughes on Alternative Economics
Gareth was a Green MP for 10 years and is now the Director of The Well Being Economy Alliance of Aotearoa which not only examines the neoliberal status quo that drives our current economy but looks a the many alternative economic models we could adopt to have a fairer society. WeAll have an...
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Episode 24 - Peter Newport
Peter Newport has had a long and distinguished journalistic career including becoming European Correspondent and Bureau Chief for Channel 9 , Deputy News Editor BBC TV News and a documentary producer with the Discovery Channel before returning to work in NZ with Mediaworks as a producer on their...
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Episode 23 - Prof. John Quiggin
John Quiggin is a professor of Economics at The University of Queensland, Australia and I first met him 10 years ago when I was making my documentary Mind The Gap . He had not long published his book Zombie Economics about how the dead economic ideas of neoliberalism such as “the market knows...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
An Aotearoa New Zealand based podcast series featuring interviews with community leaders and influencers about the big issues facing us today and what we could do to solve them and create a better tomorrow.
bryanbruce.substack.com
HOSTED BY
Bryan Bruce Investigates
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How many episodes does Head2Head have?
Head2Head currently has 73 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Head2Head about?
An Aotearoa New Zealand based podcast series featuring interviews with community leaders and influencers about the big issues facing us today and what we could do to solve them and create a better tomorrow. bryanbruce.substack.com
How often does Head2Head release new episodes?
Head2Head has 73 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Head2Head on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Head2Head?
Head2Head is created and hosted by Bryan Bruce Investigates.
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