While many journalists are trawling Reddit, X and TikTok for stories, Joel MacManus is browsing Papers Past, an online archive of digitised historical media. This week he may have solved the murder case of an emu that died at the Wellington Zoo in 1907 and last year he made a near definitive ruling on whether or not Te Rauparaha really did drink at the Thistle Inn. The resulting investigations make for gripping reading.

Gabi Lardies takes over the mic on this week’s Behind the Story and is joined by Joel MacManus to discuss why he is so intrigued by these questions and how he sets about solving them.

Windbag: The unsolved case of the Wellington emu murder

Windbag: Did Te Rauparaha really drink at the Thistle Inn?

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