DELVE

We’ve come 12,000 kilometres from Auckland to Medellín, on the trail of Chris Ashenden, the chief executive of AG1. We don’t have his number or his address, but we think he lives here.   Today’s Medellín is a vibrant city that’s attracting new investment and faces from around the world – but the legacy of drug lord Pablo Escobar and the paramilitaries still echoes in violence on the streets....

The US Food and Drug Administration reveals it’s received 118 adverse event complaints from AG1 users – this year alone. In particular, there are 30-plus reports of liver harm in 2023 and 2024.    The billion dollar company dismisses the liver harm complaints as “extremely rare”, saying it can be caused by a range of things such as alcoholic liver injury, viral hepatitis and autoimmune d...

We talk to people like Andy and Lisa who’ve used AG1 – and they’re not happy. They want to know what’s in the green powder supplement, in what quantities – and whether there’s any scientific evidence it has any health benefits.   That’s a good question. So we bring in four world-leading university nutritionists and toxicologists to critique the research. They’re concerned there’s no gold stan...

For years, AG1 has boasted of being ‘Made in New Zealand’. But where is its mystery factory? We track down a little-known contract manufacturing company in the sunny city of Nelson – and discover a much darker story.   Despite trading off New Zealand’s clean, green brand, AG1 has been quietly shifting its production to America. In the past year, this has cost nearly 180 New Zealanders their j...

Joe Rogan is one of the world’s wealthiest influencers – and we’re told AG1 is one of his best clients, paying him about $10 million a year to promote its popular green powder. Scientist Dr Andrew Huberman gets about $2 million. Gwyneth Paltrow, Formula 1’s Sir Lewis Hamilton, Olympic champion Allyson Felix … the list goes on.   AG1 is the OG of influencer marketing; it spends more on audio t...

A leaked recording reveals the Kiwi founder of billion-dollar supplements firm AG1 misrepresented his criminal history in public statements and in a meeting with the company’s president and staff, just this year. Chris Ashenden’s high-powered American lawyer claimed he had never been charged with a crime, or convicted of a crime, or been the subject of an arrest warrant – but none of those things...

Travelling to New Zealand’s southernmost city, with a chill wind that feels like it’s blowing off Antarctica, we discover it was a woman named Dee Chisholm who first blew the whistle on Chris the Kiwi’s criminal property schemes.    But tracking her down won’t be easy…until we drive out to a small remote mining village called Nightcaps.   Everyone has secrets. And in this episode, w...

We track down families who lost their homes in 'Chris the Kiwi’ Ashenden’s property dealings. And what happens next is what Powder Keg, the podcast, is all about – Ashenden, his unorthodox billion-dollar business and his magical mystery powder.    All we know is that his company AG1 is headquartered at an address in Carson City, Nevada. If it comes to the crunch and he doesn’t front, we’...

When investigative journalist Jonathan Milne started slugging back an expensive, vivid green AG1 shake every morning to get in shape for his 50th birthday, he knew what the company’s chief science officer said – that the green powder product would make him healthier.   What he didn’t know about were the adverse reports to the Food and Drug Administration of liver damage, nor of the scrutiny b...

Chris Ashenden and Jonathan Milne are both Kiwi blokes in their late 40s. Chris has an unrelenting personal ambition – it’s served him well. The business leader’s quest wasn’t for the Holy Grail, it was for a holy green drink.   Jonathan is an investigative journalist. What’s served him well is his doggedness. And when Chris wouldn’t front for an interview about the success of his green powde...

Some stories grow from a green shoot; some explode like a powder keg. The global supplement market is worth $200 billion a year, and Chris Ashenden is a rock star of the industry. Yet in his home country of New Zealand, nobody had heard of him. Investigative journalist Jonathan Milne wanted to tell his story – but when Chris proved elusive, alarm bells began to ring. In the latest electrifying pod...

Our final episode in this season coincides with world headlines about a man facing execution for the same diagnosis that imprisoned Zita. Shaken baby syndrome is being called “junk science” in the US, but it has upended the life Zita had hoped for in New Zealand. Now out of jail, she is battling her impending deportation with Immigration NZ, all while continuing to maintain her innocence.&nbs...

Things really start to wind up when Melanie and Bonnie have a major breakthrough and track down a UK paediatric pathologist who was at forefront of overturning murder charges in a high profile London case. She throws a whole new light on our case and will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew. Presented by award-winning investigations editor Melanie Reid. Discover more at...

How did moving to live in the dream country of New Zealand end up like this? Prison, divorce and a baby in the custody of the state. Presented by award-winning investigations editor Melanie Reid. Discover more at Newsroom.co.nz *Listen to the first seven episodes free. If you want to support our work and hear today’s Episode 8 right away, become a subscriber to DELVE+.  Sign up to DELVE+...

Zita continues to maintain her innocence as the courtroom drama concludes with the judge delivering a sentence Zita is totally unprepared for. In jail, she is put in an isolation wing after inmates call her a baby killer. Sign up to DELVE+ to get early access to new episodes and listen to our latest investigation, Diagnosis of a Crime, all four seasons of award-winning The Boy in the Water, both s...

Did some of Baby K’s fractures occur while on 24 hour watch in the hospital? What about the traumatic birth? “Doctors sometimes can and do get it wrong”…all this and more in the final address of Zita’s lawyer.   *Listen to the first five episodes free. If you want to support our work and hear today’s Episode 6 right away, become a subscriber to DELVE+. DELVE+ subscribers get Ea...

What is it like to be charged with child abuse in a foreign country? Zita finds out as she faces the might of Starship Hospital at her criminal trial. *Listen to the first four episodes free. If you want to hear today's Episode 5 right away, become a subscriber to DELVE+. DELVE+ subscribers get Early Release, Ad Free listening.* Sign up to DELVE+ to get early access to new episodes and l...

The NZ police investigation ramps up and, with their child taken, the couple have their house bugged, their phones tapped and just as they think it can’t get any worse…it does. *Listen to the first three episodes free. If you want to hear today’s Episode 4 right away, become a subscriber to DELVE+. DELVE+ subscribers get Early Release, Ad Free listening.* Sign up to DELVE+ to get early access...

Melanie and Bonnie meet the young couple at the centre of this case and they begin to unravel the complex cascade of events that led to a young mother being accused, convicted and jailed for two and a half years - and the daunting fight that lies ahead. *If you want to hear Episode 3 as soon as it's released, become a subscriber to DELVE+* Sign up to DELVE+ ...

What happens when the dream country, New Zealand, becomes a living hell? The Boy in the Water creator, multi-award-winning journalist Melanie Reid, is in the middle of another story when she receives an email that causes her to drop everything and get on a plane. After a year of extensive investigations, we now bring you that case. Sign up to DELVE+  to get early access to new episodes and re...

DELVE presents the new in-depth podcast from Melanie Reid Investigates about a controversial medical diagnosis from a New Zealand hospital and the cascade of events that followed.    A baby taken, a mother jailed, a couple forced apart and facing deportation without their daughter.    Crushed by the weight of multiple government departments working in lockstep, what happens whe...

On the final day of the coronial inquest into the death of three-year-old Lachie Jones, his mother has a statement read out in court, Lachie’s father addresses the Coroner and throws more shade on the police investigations - and the lawyers play their final cards for and against an accidental drowning. We also introduce our scorching, brand new podcast investigation on DELVE, coming very soon...

Jonathan appears via videolink from his new home in Australia to respond to allegations he threw his little brother Lachie in the pond, and the young man at the centre of the Facebook messages gets riled up during cross examination. Sign up to DELVE+  to get early access to new episodes and receive exclusive bonus material, all ad-free. Presented by award-winning investigations editor Melanie...

Things get heated in court when the young woman at the centre of the messages that allege Lachie’s brother threw him in the pond testifies at the inquest - and she fires back at attempts to question her motive and undermine her evidence. Sign up to DELVE+  to get early access to new episodes and receive exclusive bonus material, all ad-free. Presented by award-winning investigations editor Me...

A doctor from Starship Children’s Hospital is questioned on all the big mysteries in the case including that Lachie was found face up, had no water in his lungs and had no external injuries. You can see an image of a cross section of the pond on our  Facebook page  and our  Instagram page .  Sign up to DELVE+  to get early access to new episodes and receive exclusive bonus...