A collage of Gen Z interviewees against a rainbow background
Participants in the new online series d8talk

Pop CultureMarch 5, 2025

Is romance dead? Gen Z doesn’t think so

A collage of Gen Z interviewees against a rainbow background
Participants in the new online series d8talk

Alex Casey talks to Joe Canham, co-creator of new interview series d8talk, about capturing the realities of dating for Gen Z singles in Aotearoa. 

Celia has a habit of getting stuck into situationships with guys that look like rats, specifically the rats from 2006 animated film Flushed Away. Keven is frustrated with being exoticised by “creepy crawlers” on dating apps, and being bombarded with “bootyholes” in his DMs. Liv follows fanny flutters at the expense of emotional connection, and Thomas once had to help his date pop her dislocated knee back into place after 3-4 overpriced gin and tonics. 

These are just a handful of yarns collected by d8talk, a new online interview series exploring how Gen Z feel about dating and relationships in Aotearoa. Co-creator Joe Canham (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Te Hikutu) first came up with the idea while reflecting on his own experience in the gay dating scene in Queenstown. “It’s a transient town where, especially being in a minority, it’s a small scene to begin with… it doesn’t feel like anyone’s here for the long term.” 

Thinking about the role that location and identity can play in people’s romantic endeavors, he began conceiving of an ambitious 100-part social media project that would speak to Gen Z about the realities of dating in Aotearoa. Putting a call out on social media and Student Job Search, he and producer Georgia-May Russ (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Uekaha) whittled down a shortlist of 36 participants to fly to Tāmaki Makaurau from all around the country. 

Having previously worked in advertising, Canham harnessed the simplicity and authenticity of a casting tape for the d8talk interviews. “Very early in my career I edited a lot of casting tapes for commercials and, even though it looked so basic, people’s stories were always so cool,” he says. “We wanted to make something that was very authentic, like you are sitting down with your flatmates and just having a bit of a chat about something that happened to you.” 

Director Joe Canham smiles directly at the camera.
Joe Canham

Shooting five or six hour-long interviews every day for an entire week, participants arrived separately with a buffer window between each of them. Production also had a media chaplain onset to ensure that the interviewees felt totally comfortable before and after their shoot. “Having that support on set was really valuable. And we also had a psychologist on call who could provide psychology services, but we didn’t actually end up taking that up at all.”

After sitting through nearly 30 hours of interviews in the edit, Canham says he has learned a lot about what Gen Z values when it comes to love. “From our subset at least, they seem to have a very romantic view of love and relationships, which feels in contrast to the way millennials think.” For example, almost every d8talk interviewee said they would like to get married, which tracks with recent articles about Gen Z being more pro-marriage than their own parents

Canham also found that people were well and truly over using dating apps. “Even the people who were most prolific on the apps said they felt like they just had to be in those spaces to be able to find a connection, but they really didn’t actually enjoy that process,” he says. “Almost everyone said they would prefer to meet someone organically – I think people do seem to be yearning for something different, and something more authentic.” 

A screenshot of three different d8talk interviews against rainbow backdrop
The d8talk project has 36 interviewees

The d8talk project has launched across Instagram and Tiktok, with the next “diaries” phase to commence shortly. Eight participants from the original interviews will be selected to record their own weekly vlog updates as they navigate the dating world. “They will be a mix of people who are either prolific in the dating scene or are on a personal journey in some way,” Canham says. “It’ll have a similar aesthetic, but it’ll essentially be a completely new series.” 

Still working through hours of interviews, Canham’s hope is that d8talk inspires reflection and empathy in others. “We definitely observed that this younger subset of Gen Z are really self-aware and quite empathetic to other people’s perspectives,” he says. “I really hope that people will connect with someone in the series that’s different to who they are, and open their mind in that way. That’s always been the motivation for this project: to inspire acceptance.”

Follow d8talk on Instagram and TikTok

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Pop CultureMarch 4, 2025

Is Endangered Species Aotearoa home to the best comedy duo on TV right now?

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Our unlikely intrepid pair are back for another season of discovery, and the timing could not be better. 

Nicola Toki and Pax Assadi emerge from deep waters of the Hauraki Gulf in a state of ecstasy. They’ve just had some rare one-on-one time with an enormous happy manta ray, and neither can contain their excitement. “Holy moly, thats one of the coolest things we’ve ever done on the show,” gushes Toki. “It’s like you’re a kid again right? And that’s the bit we lose when we are adults. I want it for my kid, and your kid, to have these experiences, and for us to remember what it is like to feel that magic.”

Magic is a pretty good word for Endangered Species, a local nature documentary series that takes a big swing by championing exclusively native wildlife and landscapes over Attenborough’s staggering savannahs and star-nosed moles. Hosted by “New Zealand’s favourite bird nerd” Nicola Toki and “humble comedy legend” Pax Assadi, the show traverses the far reaches of the country and tracks down our most vulnerable species, while also giving a gentle and compassionate education to those of us who might not have, as they say, touched grass in a while.

“Do you know what you are hearing?” Toki asks Assadi as they enter the forest of Tiritiri Matangi. “Lots of birds at once?” shrugs Assadi. “…Also known as?” she goads, as if encouraging a small child. Assadi’s eyes light up – one season down and he’s finally retained some information. “…The dawn chorus!”

There’s a lot to love about Endangered Species, but Toki and Assadi as a comedy duo is unbeatable. She takes the lead and brings enthusiasm and expertise, and he tags along as the wide-eyed and wise-cracking plus-one who, more often than not, just seems to want to take every critter home with him. “Is that for us to takeaway?” Assadi says, eyeing up a tiny tītipounamu in a cloth bag on Tiritiri Matangi. When they find an impossibly plush looking petrel chick, he’s at it again. “Nicola,” he whispers. “It’s a fluffy baby bird… It’s really cute.” Pause. “… Can I have it?”

Supporting the duo on their quest are a raft of remarkable volunteers, coordinators, rangers and experts. Up north, they catch a glimpse of the rare tara iti, or fairy tern, the most critically endangered bird in the country with only 30-odd left. “There’s more people caring for them now than there are birds,” DOC’s Alex Wilson explains, adding some good news – they’ve had nine chicks survive from the last breeding season. “Your enthusiasm and your positivity in the face of a very challenging situation is incredibly inspiring,” says Toki.

Toki and Assadi talking biodiversity in the Hauraki Gulf

Speaking of challenging situations, there’s also volunteers Simon and Morag who devote their days to helping monitor the tītipounamu, the smallest bird in the country that weighs no more than a postcard, and has a call so high it cannot be heard by most people. Toki and Assadi sit back to back in awe, watching the pair gently band the tiny legs and weigh their tiny bodies. A little bird that brings about huge joy in Assadi in particular. “I felt its wing flap against my face!” he gushes, star struck, after they release one back into the air. 

The show itself has as lightness of a touch to rival Simon and Morag, spending just enough time with each new species to deepen our understanding without ever dragging. It’s also not afraid to break the fourth wall, cutting back from the sweeping opening teaser to both hosts looking perplexed in the recording booth. “Feels like we are really stretching the budget this year,” says Toki. “I know, but I’ve run the numbers Nicola,” says Assadi, punching sums furiously into a calculator that one can only assume is displaying the joke number 80085, “and we’re good to go.”

Toki and Assadi post manta ray encounter

Endangered Species is also peppered with nods to the impacts of colonisation and how some of the species relate to te ao Māori. When we travel to Tiritiri Matangi, there’s a history lesson in how the native forest was cleared for farming in the 1800s, and how the tītipounamu were traditionally viewed as messengers to Tāne Mahuta, god of the forest. In show that proudly champions everything that Aotearoa has to offer, hopefully more of these historical and cultural links keep being made and more voices of tangata whenua included.

Back on the boat in the Hauraki Gulf after coming face to face with the mighty manta ray, Toki and Assadi are still brimming with glee. Assadi in particular looks like he has had something close to a spiritual encounter. When you have experiences like this, it does spark something in you that dies when you spend a lot of time in the city,” he says. It makes you suddenly want to protect all of it. This is our planet, and it is beautiful.”

Watch Endangered Species Aotearoa on TVNZ+