The Long Read from Stuff

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 [email protected] CREDITS Host: Michael Wright Reader: Eda Tang Producers: Jen Black and Michael Wright Audio editing: Connor Scott Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 listening! Email us at [email protected] CREDITS Host: Adam Dudding Reader: Sam Smith Producer: Jen Black Audio editing: Connor Scott Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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-delusional-killer Need more great podcasts? Check out Stuff's full catalogue here. GET IN TOUCH Feedback? We’re listening! Email us at [email protected] CREDITS Host and Reader: Philippa Tolley Producer: Jen Black Audio editing: Connor Scott Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 full catalogue here. GET IN TOUCH Feedback? We’re listening! Email us at [email protected] CREDITS Host: Adam Dudding Producer: Jen Black Audio editing: Connor Scott Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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-gilmore-didnt-want-to-be-served Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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/theshortread Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Mike White and Blair Ensor reported on this story together. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.co.nz/truestory Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Ahead of accepting Aotearoa’s highest arts accolade, Dame Jane Campion talks about a life of creativity, and bringing women’s desires to screen. National Correspondent Michelle Duff tells us about the story, and reads it for The Long Read. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The race with no end: Mud, blood and heartbreak at running's most brutal event.It’s a race with no end. Entrants have to keep running until they simply can’t go on, until they drop, until there’s only one person left standing. Mike White wrote about the heroics and heartbreak that unfolded in the most brutal race imaginable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1985, 1-year-old Penny-Tui Taputoro suffered fatal injuries while in the care of family friend, Kathleen Smith. Nearly four decades later, despite conflicting evidence, lies and an admission extracted using a controversial interviewing technique, Smith has not been charged. And Penny-Tui’s family is still searching for the truth. Listen to Reporter Blair Ensor explain What Happened to Baby Penny-Tui. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Farrier has reported from radioactive wastelands and conspiracy rabbit holes, but his latest documentary may have taken him to the most toxic place yet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Zealand comedian Willy de Wit has packed a lot into his 62 years - and his new book 'Drink Smoke Snort Stroke' details the highs and lows with surprising frankness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After 30 years, Peter Ellis' convictions for child sexual abuse have been quashed. Listen to full story and hear reporter Martin van Beynen discuss the Supreme Court judgment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eighteen years ago, Chris Canham jumped off a hospital building because he thought the devil was after him. He woke three weeks later with broken legs and a smashed pelvis. But he still felt lucky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly 3000 people have been deported to New Zealand since Australia began hardline enforcement of a populist immigration policy in late 2014. More than half of them have gone on to commit crimes, but some are on the road to redemption. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dame Ngaio Marsh is best known as a crime writer. But she devoted most of her life to turning one New Zealand city into a beacon of high culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Wellington occupation was supposed to be about ending the mandates, but a new Stuff Circuit documentary investigates those behind the protest and discovers they have far bigger and more dangerous goals. Fire and Fury is a Stuff Circuit investigation into disinformation in Aotearoa New Zealand. Watch the full documentary here: https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2022/08/circuit/fire-and-fury-disinformation-in-new-zealand/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a mystery that just won't go away: is one of Auckland's most prominent landmarks still hiding secrets? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alan Hall spent 19 years in jail for a murder he didn't commit, but the authorities repeatedly refused to acknowledge a terrible mistake had been made. When the Supreme Court quashed Hall’s conviction, calls grew for those responsible to be held accountable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Melanie Lynskey has always been brilliant. Why did it take till now for the world to realise? Zoe Walker Ahwa reads her NZ-exclusive interview with the Emmy-nominated actress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story of an aging communist with oxygenated fish tanks in his car who roamed New Zealand's countryside for decades in a bizarre crime spree that forever changed our environment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The chase is on. The Long Read is breaking character harder than a Bradley Walsh laughing fit to discuss Stuff's data project on TV quiz show The Chase. Mike is joined by Stuff data journalist Kate Newton and Stuff to Watch pod host James Croot to dissect the project and talk about why the show is such a phenomenon in NZ. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The unsolved murder of 15-year-old Kirsty Bentley in 1998 in Ashburton is seared into the national consciousness. Now, police have announced a major move in the case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Murder, madness, exile, redemption: For more than 100 years, Albert Moss was the only New Zealander to take all 10 wickets in an innings in first-class cricket. It was just the start of his remarkable life story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When "Robert" first came across Bert Potter and his followers, he was all in. But after uncovering a dark secret at the Centrepoint commune, he was faced with a terrible decision – should he stay or should he go? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sandy Graham shot dead her partner, Dale Watene, then had her best friend bury the body in a shallow grave, deep in a forest. Then she told lie after lie to hide what she’d done. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Marist Brothers and Fathers have educated prime ministers, judges, cardinals and All Blacks. But their record of sexual abuse is horrific. Why have survivors receive pitifully small compensation payouts? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many, the terror attacks on the Christchurch mosques seemed to come from nowhere. But not everyone was blind to the looming danger. In the series See No Evil, Stuff investigates how a group of women desperately tried to get the attention of officials – and why they failed. (Episode two of a two-episode special.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many, the 2019 terror attacks on the Christchurch mosques seemed to come from nowhere. But not everyone was blind to the looming danger. In the series See No Evil, Stuff investigates how a group of women desperately tried to get the attention of officials – and why they failed. (Episode one of a two-episode special.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sleeping rough and suffering from terminal bowel cancer, Barbara Campbell, known as Rose, was allegedly murdered in the shopfront she’d made her home. How did she come to be estranged from her family and living on the street? WARNING: One instance of strong language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The drinking buddies who bamboozled police with their near-perfect bank job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A shallow lake nestled high in the Central Otago hill country could electrify the country, and serve as the biggest public infrastructure project in nearly half a century. Will reality, and a protected wetland, stop it in its tracks? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Allegations about megachurches have prompted significant media attention. Do they signal the end of the age of the 'hype priest'? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the anti-mandate protesters were driven off parliamentary grounds in March, many went looking for somewhere else to occupy. They set their sights on a marae in Lower Hutt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The killing of 15-year-old schoolgirl Kylie Ann Smith left a rural community in tatters and drove a pastor into hiding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For a few weird months in 1991, Adam Dudding played piano for New Zealand’s most celebrated female impersonator. But when he went in search of memories of Diamond Lil, he found a strange, tragic tale of opera, filthy double entendres – and alleged sex crimes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices