What if you could build a new society inside a national park? A motley crew of sovereign citizens tried to do just that, with an ambitious – but mostly incompetent – attempt to establish “New Freeland” under the Department of Conservation’s nose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The identities of two men who drugged and sexually assaulted numerous women have been revealed after earlier being found guilty. Blair Ensor and Jake Kenny give the full report on Operation Sinatra. A warning: this episode does have references to sexual abuse. Resources are at the bottom of the show notes. You can read Jake Kenny and Blair Ensor's story here. Need more great podcasts? Check out Stuff's full catalogue here. GET IN TOUCH Feedback? We’re listening! Email us at thelongread@stuff.co....
They are the forgotten Māori soldiers of Colditz. The two men served time in the infamous German prison and went on a dangerous mission at the close of World War II in Europe. Charlie Gates uncovers their full story for the first time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
After 19 women were fired from the Wellington strip club, Calender Girls over contract negotiations, Hanna McCullum was given access to the inner sanctum of a strip club. She discovered a bond between the dancers and shocking employment conditions. A warning: this episode does have references to sexual abuse. You can read Hanna McCullum's story here. Need more great podcasts? Check out Stuff's full catalogue here. GET IN TOUCH Feedback? We’re listening! Email us at thelongread@stuff.co.nz CREDIT...
A storm with the destructive force of Cyclone Gabrielle could temporarily cripple the capital and sink parts of the Hutt Valley under four metres of floodwater. Ethan Te Ora examines the hypothetical path and fallout of such an event. You can read Ethan Te Ora's story here. Need more great podcasts? Check out Stuff's full catalogue here. GET IN TOUCH Feedback? We’re listening! Email us at thelongread@stuff.co.nz CREDITS Host: Philippa Tolley Read by Ethan Te Ora Produced by Jono Williams Audio e...
Convicted killer Mark Pakenham insists he was 'framed' in Sara Niethe disappearance. He claims he confessed to accidentally killing her rather than be charged with murder. As Jono Williams recounts, her body and her car have never been found. You can read Tony Wall's story at: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300847790/convicted-killer-mark-pakenham-lives-on-a-boat-in-far-north-insists-he-was-framed-in-sara-niethe-disappearance Need more great podcasts? Check out Stuff's full catalogue her...
Freshly divorced, psychologist Dr Angela Ahola decided to take dating to the next level. After going on 100 dates, here is what she learnt about finding love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Barbara Millicent Roberts, the blond bombshell doll better known as Barbie, is now 64 years old. She is sold in 150 countries worldwide at a rate of more than 100 every minute. Barbie, and her unrealistic proportions, have come in for a lot of stick over the years, despite efforts to diversify. But she remains steadfastly popular and has even inspired a movie due out later this year. Barbie: Feminist foe or marketing masterpiece? - written and read by Virginia Fallon Learn more about your ad cho...
Matthew Williams always imagined he'd be a parent someday. With the help of a close friend and his big sister, he's believed to have become the first single gay man in New Zealand to achieve that dream through surrogacy, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Within New Zealand’s tight-knit fashion industry questions have been swirling about Adrian Hailwood’s design practices, after it emerged the same dresses worn by the likes of Tova O’Brien, Wendy Petrie and even former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern are widely available through Chinese manufacturers trading on wholesale site Alibaba. So what's going on? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
No artificial intelligence had ever really cracked the Māori language before, and now here are at least two. Pou Tiaki Reporter Joel Maxwell had conversations with ChatGPT and the Bing chatbot in Te Reo Māori to see if it could hold form coherent sentences in Aotearoa's indigenous language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Many people still believe in finding ‘the one’, but a growing number of Kiwis believe love goes further than that. Polyamory, often misunderstood, can also be freeing. You can read Eda Tang's Story from this episode at https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/130649407/i-was-seeing-six-people-polyamory-often-misunderstood-can-also-be-freeing Need more great podcasts? Check out Stuff's full catalogue here. GET IN TOUCH Feedback? We’re listening! Email us at thelongread@stuff.co.nz CREDITS Host: Michael ...
New Zealand’s newest national park - and one of the most isolated spots in the country - is polluted with plastic trash. Although just over 400 people live on Rakiura/Stewart Island, they're dealing with a rubbish problem bigger than themselves. You can read Andrea's story from this episode at https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/131400830/how-our-love-affair-with-plastic-is-fouling-a-national-park Need more great podcasts? Check out Stuff's full catalogue here. GET IN TOUCH Feedback? We’re liste...
Police hid in bushes, bugged phones and kept him under surveillance for two years before arresting the man charged with the senseless murder of road worker George Taiaroa. 10 years on, Stuff National Correspondent Tony Wall, the only reporter to have interviewed his killer and reveals new details of the police operation to snare a “madman”. You can read stories supporting this episode on https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300815913/the-madman-and-the-road-worker-how-police-moved-in-on-a-delu...
Everyone describes him as articulate, well-educated, intelligent. He ran daycare centres, was a school trustee. So why did he lie over and over again to Immigration New Zealand? Steve Kilgallon tells a story of religious worker visas, fake passports and leaders treated as God's. You can read Steve Kilgallon's story at https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/131234840/rajvinder-singh-had-a-unique-defence-ive-fallen-under-the-spell-of-a-godlike-figure Need more great podcasts? Check out Stuff's ful...
New Zealand’s biggest aviation mystery has it all: a daring pilot, a vintage plane, a tourist flight to the most beautiful place on earth, and a honeymooning couple. But what happened to Dragonfly ZK-AFB, which disappeared more than 60 years ago, remains unknown despite decades of searching. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Former National MP Aaron Gilmore wants people to know who he is – again. A group of people, with whom he is mired in a messy business dispute, wish they never met him. Ethan Te Ora investigates a story of unpaid bills, forced entries, and an apartment hotel proprietor. First Story: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-body-elections/129679744/the-apartment-owners-who-wish-they-didnt-know-aaron-gilmore Second Story: https://stuff.co.nz/national/politics/131161959/this-time-aaron-gilmor...
Breakfast radio host and veteran entertainer Gary McCormick is on the move again. After 18 years of cheering up listeners on their daily commute or making sure their day starts with a laugh, Gary McCormick reflects on his life thus far as he transitions into his new role. One thing for sure is he really won't be missing Taylor Swift. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The J Swap contracting conglomerate has known for years that it was quarrying near an old pā site of significance to Māori, but even after part of the site collapsed, it kept blasting. National Correspondent Tony Wall investigates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mana, liberation. Chicken crafted from peas. Reporter Joel Maxwell blends observation, opinion, and the voices of fellow vegans, including Tāme Iti, in a quest to find what it means to be a Māori vegan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Wellington exists because of a propaganda campaign, which led to it becoming the capital under questionable circumstances. Charlie Mitchell makes the case that Hamilton (that’s right) is a better bet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In March 2018, Ben Lott fell and suffered a severe brain injury while competing in an adventure race. Two days later, he was found disoriented in the middle of a forest by fellow racer Scott Worthington. Over the following days, Worthington helped Lott make it to the race finish. Over the next four years, he stayed beside Lott while he made an incredible recovery. This is the story of Finding Ben. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If you love The Long Read, why not check out The Short Read, a new podcast in the Stuff Podcast Network. Listen to the very best of the 2022 Sunday Star Times Short Story Competition in The Short Read. Each episode contains a winning entry or judges’ choice - and insights from its author. The perfect way to relax this summer without getting sand in your book.This is episode 1: "Home by Bernard Steeds". If you like what you hear, go subscribe to the whole series. More info at stuff.co.nz/theshort...
When Alfred Hitchcock came on holiday to New Zealand in 1967, he popped in to see an old friend in the Wellington suburbs. A collection of letters reveals his 50-year Kiwi friendship for the first time. Reporter Charlie Gates tells us all about it in this weeks episode of The Long Read. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A New Zealander has a stroke every 55 minutes. When it happened to classical conductor Hamish McKeich it robbed him of the one thing he needs to perform. Andrea Vance and Iain McGregor tell his story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Forget the shenanigans of Newsboy, and welcome the new “moderate” Jeremy Wells: a man who meditates at lunchtime, is restrained in his drinking, jogs, eats well, tries to be an engaged parent and describes himself as politically centrist. National Correspondent Steve Kilgallon chats to Michael Wright about his piece on Jeremy Wells. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 2018, New Zealand police began using a controversial interviewing tactic to crack cold case killings. The public knew nothing about it until this year. However, a 12-month Stuff investigation has revealed strong concerns about police interviewing tactics were raised long before one interview led to a false confession and a collapsed murder case. Moreover, the actions of the top officer who created the technique have been questioned for many years before he retired in October. Senior Writers M...
At an eye clinic in Fiji, blindness can be reversed with a swift, transformative surgery. But out of the corner of the medics’ eyes, a worrying new threat is looming. Podcast Director Adam Dudding tells us about the story, and reads it for The Long Read. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
If you love The Long Read, why not check out True Story, a new podcast in the Stuff Podcast Network. Hosted by Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham who created The Commune, True Story is a weekly current affairs podcast. Each episode, Adam and Eugene take their microphones on the road to bring you one true New Zealand story: sometimes quirky, sometimes serious – always surprising. This is episode 1: "My boss is a robot". If you like what you hear, go subscribe to the whole series. More info at stuff....
Who is Jo Mckenzie Mclean? What is Stuff’s new podcast Jo vs Cancer? Jo Mckenzie Mclean’s life was turned upside down after a stage 4 bowel cancer diagnosis. In Stuff's new podcast Jo Vs Cancer, the mother-of-two and Stuff journalist offers frank - and sometimes darkly funny - insights into life with an incurable illness. Reporter Nadine Roberts asks Jo why she has gone public with her diagnosis in this Long Read. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
