DELVE: Powder Keg

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 was correct. 

We listen to the recording alongside Anita Mika, who lost her home in Chris’s property scheme. Her sister also lost her home – but she died without seeing justice done. ‘We can forgive, but we never forget,’ Anita says.

Each episode is available first to subscribers to DELVE+. To listen early and ad-free to this show, to our bonus episodes, and to award-winning podcast The Boy in the Water and Melanie Reid’s latest investigation, Fractured, sign up to DELVE+.

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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, we finally meet the protagonists – some might call them antagonists – who faced off in former police officer Chris Ashenden’s first clash with the law. It won’t be his last…the story of AG1, the world’s favourite green powder supplement, is blowing up big.

Each episode is available first to subscribers to DELVE+. To listen early and ad-free to this show, to our bonus episodes, and to award-winning podcast The Boy in the Water and Melanie Reid’s latest investigation, Fractured, sign up to DELVE+.

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

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’ll need to go there to talk with the company’s founder.

What we didn’t know is the story of criminal offending that will emerge – a story that Chris the Kiwi didn’t want told.

Listen to the first 3 episodes now. Episode 4 is available first to subscribers to DELVE+. To listen early and ad-free to this show, to our bonus episodes, and to award-winning podcast The Boy in the Water and Melanie Reid’s latest investigation, Fractured, sign up to DELVE+.

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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. Will she get to see her daughter? Will the international experts come through in time? And why won’t Starship Hospital front up on this case? 

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 Reid. Discover more at Newsroom.co.nz

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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 by the courts, and now of a national regulator.

Episodes 1 and 2 of Powder Keg are live now, with Episode 3 also available for subscribers to DELVE+.

To listen early and ad-free to this show, to our bonus episodes, and to award-winning podcast The Boy in the Water and Melanie Reid’s latest investigation, Fractured, sign up to DELVE+.

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

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 powder shake and his US$1.2 billion company, Jonathan began asking questions. 

At first, Chris’s AG1 supplement had been targeted at sportspeople and gym freaks – but by last year, we reveal he’d rebranded to target the widest possible market of middle-America…desk-bound 30- or 40-something mums and dads, anxious to get back in shape.

Episodes 1 and 2 of Powder Keg are live now, with Episode 3 also available for subscribers to DELVE+.

To listen early and ad-free to this show, to our bonus episodes, and to award-winning podcast The Boy in the Water and Melanie Reid’s latest investigation, Fractured, sign up to DELVE+.

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

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 Newsroom.co.nz

*Listen to the first eight episodes free. If you want to support our work and hear today’s Episode 9 right away, become a subscriber to DELVE+. Sign up to DELVE+ to get early access to new episodes and receive exclusive bonus material, all ad-free.*

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

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 podcast from DELVE, we investigate the superstar endorsements, the science and the safety of the world’s favourite green powder, AG1. Listen to a story that will entangle the biggest names in audio, from Joe Rogan to Andrew Huberman to Gwyneth Paltrow. We follow the money, dig into the crimes and commission our own lab analysis. From the chill of the Southern Ocean to a record Mexican heatwave, from Colombia to the Caribbean, we chase down AG1’s founder to tell the story he didn’t want told. 

Episodes 1 and 2 launch Thursday, October 31, with Episode 3 also available for subscribers to DELVE+

To listen early and ad-free to this show, to our bonus episodes, and to award-winning podcast The Boy in the Water and Melanie Reid’s latest investigation, Fractured, sign up to DELVE+.

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

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+ to get early access to new episodes and receive exclusive bonus material, all ad-free.*

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

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