Podcasts

On this page you will find New Zealand history podcasts that you are free to download and use. See also Document downloads.

New – subscribe to our podcasts, including via iTunes at:
http://newzealandhistory.podbean.com/

Right click on audio links below to save mp3s to your computer or other device.

History Group seminars, 2013

'Friendly Fire: What happens when allies quarrel', Gerald Hensley 5 June 2013. In 1984 the anti-nuclear policy of the newly elected Labour Government collided with the United States policy of nuclear deterrence. It led to the rebuff of a US naval visit and after two years in which tempers rose and diplomacy struggled with David Lange's free-wheeling press conferences, the standoff ended in New Zealand's suspension from the ANZUS alliance. In his talk Gerald Hensley, who was one of the participants, draws on interviews and classified files in New Zealand, the US, Australia and the United Kingdom to look at how this came about and how the clash of powerful personalities shifted the foundations of New Zealand's foreign policy.

Gerald Hensley was trained as an historian. He served as a diplomat for twenty years before becoming Head of the Prime Minister's Department under both Sir Robert Muldoon and David Lange, and subsequently Secretary of Defence.

Download this audio as a podcast (24mbs, mp3) or listen to it online here.

IPANZ seminar series, 2012

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage and IPANZ co-hosted a series of four public history seminars to mark the centenary of the Public Service Act. The speakers explored the political context in which the 1912 Act was enacted, the long period of continuity until 1988, the 1980s “revolution”, and the present and the future. Download them here:

9 October – Patronage and Scientific Rationalism: The Public Service Act 1912 – Dr. John E. Martin, Parliamentary Historian (mp3, 11.6 mbs)
16 October – The “Old” Public Service – John R. Martin, IPANZ Fellow. (mp3, 15 mbs)
Tuesday 23rd October – The Eighties – A Retrospective View – Prof. Jonathon Boston, Institute of Governance and Policy Studies. (mp3, 14.3 mbs)
30 October – The Present and Future – Prof. Peter Hughes, School of Government. Introduced by Lewis Holden, CEO of Manatū Tangoa. (mp3, 12mbs)

History Group seminars. 2011-12

'The search for Anne Perry' - seminar by Dr Joanne Drayton given at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 5 September 2012. Dr Drayton discusses her biography of crime writer Anne Perry, better known in New Zealand as the convicted muderer Juliet Hulme.

Download this audio as a podcast (12mbs, mp3) or listen to it online here.

‘Life on the Battlefields 94 years later’ by Charlotte Descamps, 1 August 2012.
Belgian historian Charlotte Descamps, who has lived her whole life in the First World War battlefields of the Ypres Salient, talks about her experiences at Varlet Farm, how evidence of the conflict is unearthed every year, how modern technology is helping to identify human remains almost a century after the war, the ‘iron harvest’ in the Salient (over 200 tons of live ammunition is still collected very year) and the work of the bomb disposal squad, how other items like helmets, rifles, rum jars, badges, buckles and silent pickets help tell the history of the area, and the ongoing research efforts to locate tunnels, ammunition dumps and dugouts.

Download this audio as a podcast (19mbs, mp3). You can also download the associated slides for this talk (4mb, pdf)

'Scandal Sheet Confidential: voyages around NZ Truth (1977-2008)' by Redmer Yska, 5 October 2011.
Redmer Yska recalls his involvement with 'NZ Truth' newspaper over three decades: first, as a journalist, second as a historical researcher, and lastly as its biographer, resulting in the 2010 book NZ Truth: the Rise and Fall of the People's Paper

Download this audio as a podcast (13mbs, mp3)

Charles Mackay: The fall and rise of New Zealand's first 'homosexual' by Paul Diamond, 7 September 2011.
In 1929 Charles Mackay, a former mayor of Wanganui bled to death on a Berlin street corner – a victim of violent clashes between police and Communist protesters. How did he get there? An earlier incident triggered Mackay’s tragic trajectory: in 1920 he shot the returned soldier-cum-writer Walter D’Arcy Cresswell, who was blackmailing the (secretly homosexual) mayor. Paul Diamond’s research into the events surrounding both shootings has uncovered new information about this hidden aspect of New Zealand history.