Brian Boyd is a Distinguished Professor of English at Auckland University. His 2009 book On the Origin of Stories argues that telling stories is not just something we humans like to do, but something we need to do – in fact, something that evolution has hardwired us to do. We asked him why… Telling stories ... [Read More]

Wellington, 1999 Three worried-looking men in their late 30s and 40s sit in a grimy office above Dixon Street. Smoking having only been confirmed to be a health hazard a few decades earlier, it is still legal to smoke in offices. So they do, imagining that it helps them concentrate as they debate the big ... [Read More]