Long Story Short

In 1989, a jetboat skipper spots something snagged on a submerged tree, just downstream from the picturesque Huka Falls. It’s the body of a 51-year-old cricket umpire, Peter Plumley-Walker – bound hand and foot. Police soon figure out Plumley-Walker was last seen at a bondage session with a young sex worker and her boyfriend. But was his death a terrible accident – or murder?

Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham revisit a sensational case involving secret witnesses, duelling pathologists and three murder trials that had the nation transfixed.

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

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Season two of Long Story Short is sooooooooo close – but in the meantime, check out this episode from a series Adam and Eugene made for Stuff a few years back, called Out of My Mind. Each episode of this series is one person who has struggled with their mental health, talking openly about their lived experience and their path to recovery. This episode is called Angels and Demons, and the voice you’ll hear is Egan Bidois, who was institutionalised after seeing and hearing things that no one else could perceive; but who then found a remarkable way to navigate the world – and thrive.

This is the last of three “inter-season” bonus eps.

The first episode of Season Two of Long Story Short is coming very very soon!

* Content warning: Strong language; discussion of suicide.

* If you want to talk to a trained counsellor, call or text for free to 1737.

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The countdown to new Long Story Short eps continues, but in the meantime Eugene and Adam caught up with Dame Juliet Gerrard, former chief science adviser to PM Jacinda Ardern (as well as two other PMs called Chris). We first met Dame Juliet when doing interviews for the podcast Quarantine Nation, about NZ’s experience of the Covid pandemic. She was a great interview subject back then, so when we heard she’d written a whole book about her time advising the government on matters scientific, we had to read it, and then after reading it we had to talk to her. Luckily, we hit record, so now you can listen to that conversation.

Links to stuff in the episode

- Dame Juliet’s book: https://aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/front-row-seat/

- Stuck: How Vaccine Rumours Start and Why They Don’t Go Away: global.oup.com/academic/product/stuck-9780190077242

- You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262361378/you-are-here/

Other Long Story Short Links

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Become a supporter: lsspodcast.com

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re busy making season two of Long Story Short, but in the meantime, check out this episode from a series we made a few years back when we were working at Stuff, called True Story. 

This episode was called The Great Macron War, and it’s a story about language, online feuds and dirty deeds done in the dead of the night. 

Thanks to Stuff for letting us showcase this from their amazing podcast archives, and if you want to hear more of the True Story series, go to https://www.stuff.co.nz/truestory. 

We have a couple more treats coming up on this feed, then in late October, Long Story Short’s Season Two begins!

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott Watson has spent more than two decades in prison for the murders of Olivia Hope and Ben Smart – crimes he has always denied committing.

In part two of this series, Eugene Bingham and Adam Dudding investigate the holes in the case, the troubling circumstances surrounding key witness Guy Wallace, Eugene's encounter with a secret witness, and the long-running campaign to free Scott Watson.

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The disappearance of Olivia Hope and Ben Smart from a party on New Year's Eve, 1997, sparked one of New Zealand's biggest and most controversial police investigations.

Their bodies were never found, but detectives believe they found the killer: Scott Watson.

In part one of this two-part series, Eugene Bingham and Adam Dudding examine the critical evidence – hairs from a tiger-print blanket, hotly disputed eyewitness accounts, and the hunt for a mysterious missing ketch.

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1967, a film was released that was so shocking, so arousing, and so full of rude words that the NZ censor banned men and women from sitting together when watching it.

Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham get out the popcorn and investigate what happened when the movie of James Joyce’s high-art novel Ulysses arrived downunder. It's tale of pearl-clutching, patriarchy and a punch-up in a projector-room.

(Content warning: there are, unavoidably, quite a few rude words)

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In June 2018, a man dressed in black was shot in the neck and left bleeding on a manicured lawn in the quiet town of Goochland, Virginia. His passport revealed he had travelled almost 18,000km from Auckland, New Zealand.

Why did gamer Troy Skinner fly across the globe armed with a hunting knife, pepper spray, and duct tape? And what was he planning once he got there?

Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham unravel a bizarre tale of online obsession and legal loopholes.

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael October, aka Mikaere Oketopa, has been in jail for years for a crime that he swears he didn't commit. Then one night, in a whirlwind of bomb threats, pizza deliveries and rioting skinheads, a group of inmates make demands that will change the trajectory of Oketopa's life.

In part two of this two-part series, Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham trace the long and frustrating campaign of Mikaere Oketopa and his supporters to prove his innocence.

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a 22-year-old woman is found murdered in the grounds of a school, police swiftly ID three key suspects.

There’s just one problem: one of them says he was fast asleep on the other side of town at the time of the killing. And his co-accused swear they never met him. So why was Michael October (also known as Mikaere Oketopa) jailed all the same?

In part one of this two-part series, Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham kick the tyres of a baffling and disturbing murder investigation.

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1986, the Russian cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov sank in the Marlborough Sounds.

Decades later, questions still float around. Why was the ship sailing through dangerous waters? Why did the captain resist help to save it? And did Vladimir Putin really attend the inquiry?

Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham dive into a strange maritime mystery – a tale of tragedy, intrigue and Cold War paranoia.

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Crimes and catastrophes, scandals and scammers, secrets and lies.

Long Story Short is the latest project from multi-award-winning podcasters Eugene Bingham and Adam Dudding. In each episode, the two journalists take apart a sensational case – a crime, scandal, catastrophe or something just plain weird – then piece it back together again.

Expect strange tales you’ve never heard before, surprising twists on stories you thought you knew, and deep dives into mysteries from New Zealand and beyond.

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If you value this kind of storytelling and want to help us keep making it, you can become a Long Story Short supporter at LSSpodcast.com. You’ll get early, ad-free access to episodes, as well as some subscriber-only bonus content every season.

Also, don't forget to sign up to our FREE FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER, so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops, along with podcast recommendations and stray thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.