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Latest episodes
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Legacy
February 24, 2026 · 1 hr 7 minAs vaccination rates soar and restrictions fall away, Covid enters a new phase. But the damage is not done. Infections and deaths climb, the virus becomes endemic, and the toll of the pandemic begins to surface. Burnout has claimed many…
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Virus on the loose
February 24, 2026 · 45 minAfter months of believing the virus had been beaten, New Zealand is forced to confront a harder truth and accept that Covid isn’t finished. New variants slip through the cracks, cases re-emerge and lockdowns return. Auckland, in…
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Culture wars
February 24, 2026 · 45 minAs the pandemic grinds on, the country begins to fracture and a culture war erupts. Just as breakthroughs in the laboratory are finally delivering hope in the form of vaccines, misinformation and disinformation begin to spread and online…
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An open and shut case
February 24, 2026 · 50 minComedian Mike Minogue becomes an unlikely essential worker, fronting a public health message meant to encourage the country to stay the course. It’s all part of a top-down effort to sell key messages. At the same time, community-led…
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Zoombie apocalypse
February 24, 2026 · 53 minAwkward online meetings, face-filter mishaps on important calls and frayed tempers: lockdown life is strange, exhausting, and occasionally hilarious. We explore how New Zealand is adapting to confinement, from binge-watching Tiger King to…
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Are we doing it right?
February 24, 2026 · 49 minAs New Zealand rushes to lock down and build a Covid response, a critical system begins to falter. Behind the scenes, the country’s Covid testing system teeters on the edge of collapse, and scientists and officials scramble to fix it in…
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Lockdown
February 24, 2026 · 48 minNew Zealand shuts the border. An unprecedented nationwide lockdown follows – and lives are in upheaval. We meet a scientist racing to develop breakthrough technology from the kitchen table (while keeping one eye on her newly walking…
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Contagion
February 24, 2026 · 50 minIt’s late 2019 and the world is enjoying its last moments of normality. But a novel virus is already spreading fast. Within weeks, as Covid starts to rip around the world, Aotearoa faces a choice, one that will upend daily life, the…
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Trailer
February 17, 2026 · 3 minA lethal virus. A drastic lockdown. A nation turned upside down. From the makers of acclaimed podcasts The Commune, True Story and Witi Underwater, this eight-part narrative series revisits the Covid-19 pandemic with the benefit of…
About the show
A lethal virus. A drastic lockdown. A nation turned upside down.
Quarantine Nation is an eight-part narrative series that revisits the Covid-19 pandemic with the benefit of hindsight and powerful interviews. From the corridors of power to hospital wards, managed isolation hotels and kitchen tables, it traces how New Zealand responded when the Sars-CoV-2 virus started spreading.
Through in-depth conversations with decision-makers, scientists, frontline health workers and ordinary New Zealanders, the series examines what worked, what failed, and the unintended consequences that followed.
Memories of sourdough starters, Netflix binges and daily press conferences may fade, but the scars of the pandemic remain, so Quarantine Nation asks what the pandemic taught us about ourselves, and how it continues to affect us.
Plus, don’t miss the theme tune by Jack Buchanan, maker of the global viral Covid hit, Family Lockdown Boogie. Each episode features a different verse.
Made with the support of NZ on Air for Stuff by Te Pūrongo Productions.
See www.stuff.co.nz/QN for extra videos and articles.