‘I Was An Honest Dealer': Prison to Professor - The Unbelievable Life of Greg Newbold

‘I Was An Honest Dealer': Prison to Professor - The Unbelievable Life of Greg Newbold

From The Dom Harvey Podcast by Dom Harvey

May 24, 2026 · 2h 14m

About this episode

Greg Newbold shares his incredible journey from heroin dealer to leading criminologist and professor.

Greg Newbold is best known as one of New Zealand’s top criminologists. He spent 30 years at Canterbury University and became to go-to guy whenever the main stream media wanted someone to comment on crime. But his back story is jaw dropping.  In the 1970s, when Greg was in his early 20s, he was a heroin user and dealer, socialising in the same circles as New Zealand’s most infamous drug dealer, Terry Clarke aka Mr Asia.  He eventually got busted and was sentenced to seven-and-a-half-years in prison. Then somehow… he comes out the other side, gets a PhD and completely reinvented himself as one of New Zealand’s leading criminologists and university professors. And he has just put out a new book too called Dream Dealer.  https://www.paperplus.co.nz/shop/books/non-fiction/biography-memoir/dream-dealer In this conversation, Greg opens up about how he became addicted to heroin, the reality of life at Paremoremo maximum security prison back then, and the surprising lessons he learned about human nature while locked up alongside some of the country’s most notorious criminals. At nearly 75 years old, Greg’s still running, swimming, lifting weights, and reflecting on a…

People in this episode

Host: Dom Harvey

Guest: Greg Newbold

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Canterbury University

Products: Dream Dealer

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