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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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.

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, and we’ve got some subscriber-only bonus content in the pipeline as well. You can also sign up to our free newsletter so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops.

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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

Sign up for our free newsletter: https://lss-newsletter.netlify.app/

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Become a supporter: lsspodcast.com

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, and we’ve got some subscriber-only bonus content in the pipeline as well. You can also sign up to our free newsletter so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops.

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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!

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, and we’ve got some subscriber-only bonus content in the pipeline as well. You can also sign up to our free newsletter so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops.

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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.

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, and we’ve got some subscriber-only bonus content in the pipeline as well. You can also sign up to our free newsletter so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops.

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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.

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, and we’ve got some subscriber-only bonus content in the pipeline as well. You can also sign up to our free newsletter so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops.

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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)

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, and we’ve got some subscriber-only bonus content in the pipeline as well. You can also sign up to our free newsletter so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops.

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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.

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, and we’ve got some subscriber-only bonus content in the pipeline as well. You can also sign up to our free newsletter so you’ll hear from us each time a new story drops.

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