Content warning: This episode contains frank discussion of addiction, depression, suicide and self-harm, and may not be suitable for all listeners. Please take care while listening. Support details are at the end of this description.

Mike King is one of the most recognisable figures in New Zealand. Comedian, broadcaster, mental health campaigner, former New Zealander of the Year: he's been all of them, and he's spent the last few years at the centre of a national conversation about how we look after our young people.

But the man behind the headlines is rarely the one the public gets to see. In this wide-ranging kōrero, King sits down for the longest and most personal conversation he's given in years.

He traces the whole arc: a childhood spent certain he'd never be good enough, the delayed path through kitchens and the Merchant Navy, the comedy career that made him a household name, and the rock bottom that nearly ended everything.

He talks with unusual honesty about getting clean, the moment that made him walk away from comedy for good, and how a late-night radio slot became the beginning of I Am Hope and Gumboot Friday. Along the way he reflects on the criticism that follows him, the toll of the work, and why he recently stepped back from the charity he built.

Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.

Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.

If anything in this episode brings things up for you, support is available.

Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time, 24 hours a day, to speak with a trained counsellor.

Free counselling for young people is available through Gumboot Friday — http://iamhope.org.nz

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Content note: this contains a tribute to our friend and former guest Becki Ross and touches on assisted dying - please listen with care.

In this one: we open by accidentally reading each other's minds (one name, one count of three - you'll hear it). Steve buys a TV with five kids in tow and zero research, we settle who actually owes who a dump-run favour, and we take the Almighty crew on a thirsty tour of Hamilton - the Gardens' new medieval garden, Soul Bowl's new digs, and a Duck Island ice cream we had to eat on camera.

Since we last had her on the show, our friend Becki Ross has passed away, choosing assisted dying on her own terms. We sat down to reflect on her, to read her final message, and to hold onto what she gave all of us - "live your life to the fullest, find those silver linings and love your people hard." Thank you, Becki.

We get into why we've stayed apolitical for nearly seven years and won't put a sitting politician in the chair, run this week's between two bets, and look ahead to a huge run: Nathan Fa’avae and the Gilbert Enoka re-release out now.

We end the episode as we reconnect with One NZ Warriors CEO Cam George the morning after the grand final - a season one win short of the big dance, what the day after a loss like that actually looks like, and leading a club that's become the biggest story in the game.

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He's one of New Zealand's greatest ever athletes - 7x Adventure Racing World Championships, a decade unbeaten on the biggest races on the planet, and a record-breaking 1,000-mile paddle down the Yukon. And he's done all of it with a heart condition.

But this conversation goes way past the trophy cabinet. Nathan Fa'avae takes us from a lonely Pasifika kid in 1970s Nelson to the start line of the world's toughest races - and into the moments that actually shaped him: losing his mind after 72 hours without sleep, his outrigger breaking apart 25km out to sea in the dark while leading the World's Toughest Race, and the day his whole world changed on a chairlift when he lost his mum.

Along the way: why he built the biggest adventure race on earth for women, the puddle that sums up how he parents, why he raises his kids to struggle on purpose, and why, for him, success isn't winning - it's freedom.

Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.

Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.

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

Di sits down one on one with Seamus for an honest session about the thing he finds hardest: using his voice.

They get into why he defaults to making everyone else okay at his own expense, where that started (being the youngest, and a childhood of "seen and not heard"), and the real cost of staying quiet when speaking up would save time, money and energy.

Then there's the idea Di keeps coming back to: the joy of missing out. Not FOMO, JOMO. Why saying hell yes to what matters means getting comfortable saying "not yet" to everything else, and how Seamus used it to make a call the old version of him never would have.

They finish on a listener question every operator will recognise: how do you know when to leave a full-time salary behind and go all in on your own business? Di walks through exactly how she'd do it, step by step.

This episode is brought to you by Odoo.

New episodes of Accidental Business Owners with Di Foster, out now. Follow wherever you get your podcasts.

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Gilbert Enoka is back with the All Blacks. After 23 years and 304 tests as their mental skills coach - two World Cup wins along the way - he stepped away in 2023, worked with Chelsea and England cricket, and has now returned to the team as leadership and mental performance coach ahead of the 2027 World Cup.

This is a big one, recorded during his time away. The first half is the man: a childhood in an orphanage from 18 months to 12, learning to work and fight, and how being "emotionally malnourished" turned into the skill that made him indispensable - reading a room before anyone said a word.

The second half is the craft: the no-dickheads policy, standards over values, the "human library" of legends built for 2023, how close the All Blacks came to walking away from the haka, and the Gilbertisms - winge up not down, don't take the sausage, wishbone-backbone-funny-bone - he's spent a career distilling.

His book Become Unstoppable is out now.

Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.

Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.

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

Steve reports back from the inaugural Halberg Golf Day at Royal Auckland - a celebrity auction, a plus-handicap playing partner, a 21-under round and a great cause. Meanwhile the office golf simulator is quietly destroying everyone's productivity.

Dave Wood's back on the show, and the boys are stuck in the gap between knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it - see: the kettlebells that have sat in the garage, still boxed, for two weeks. Plus the monthly "life dinner" relationship hack, a big birthday in Fiji, awards season for the team, a debate that'll split your household (sock-sock-shoe-shoe or sock-shoe-sock-shoe?), and a reflection on the response to the Gloria Masters episode.

Heads up - there's a sexologist in the studio next week, so get your questions in.

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

The thing that gets you to the top is rarely the thing that keeps you there. Dave Wood is the first guest ever invited back on Between Two Beers three times. A former lifeguard and intensive care paramedic, he turned his own battle with chronic pain into a career as one of the world's leading voices on stress, mindset and human performance — working with elite athletes and some of the country's biggest businesses.

In his third visit, Dave gets into what pressure really does to high performers, and why pushing harder stops being the answer. He shares the moment that pulled him out of chronic pain, the story behind "be your own voice," knowing when to push and when to pull back, the stories we tell ourselves about our own bodies, becoming a dad —-and how his 79-year-old father's remarkable recovery says everything about the work we can all be doing now to stay healthy and present for the people we love.

Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.

Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.

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

Steve, Seamus and Di sat down with two former Between Two Beers guests - Geoff Ross and Grant Baker, the founders behind 42 Below, Moa, Trilogy and Ecoya - and asked them one question: what would you do with the audience we have?

This episode is the debrief. The three of them unpack what came out of that room: why "trap money" killed a deal they were considering, why two people who've built a drinks brand said don't launch one, the difference between having a business and having a practice, and the shift from "what's next?" to just 10x-ing the thing that already works.

Plus: the value of doing the deep work when everyone else is letting AI write the shell, why the best takeaway wasn't the advice at all - and an Odoo listener question from Mary in Invercargill on how to build a business that runs without you.

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The silent epidemic harming Kiwi kids - and the survivor determined to end it.

For the first sixteen years of her life, Gloria Masters endured abuse most New Zealanders would refuse to believe happens here. She survived - and went on to become a teacher, a child psychotherapist and a communications trainer, dedicating her life to breaking the silence around child sexual abuse and giving parents the tools to protect their kids.

In one of the most confronting and important conversations we've had on the show, Gloria shares how she found hope in the darkest place imaginable, why she chose to hand the shame back to where it belongs, and the practical signs every adult should learn to notice.

⚠️ This episode contains discussion of child sexual abuse and suicide. Please take care listening.

If anything in this episode raises something for you:

• Safe to Talk – Kōrero mai (sexual harm): call 0800 044 334 or text 4334, free and confidential, 24/7
• Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time
• Worried about a child? Oranga Tamariki: 0508 326 459
• In an emergency, call 111

If you want to get in touch with Gloria and her Charity for support here: https://www.gloriamasters.com/

Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.

Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.

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

The boys are back behind the scenes of Between Two Beers. This week a golf simulator lands in the office, the Kane Williamson live podcast at Made, a debrief on meeting Grant Baker and Jeff Ross, Father's Day as a new dad, and Between Two Bets.

Plus Mark Law returns three weeks on from his episode - the book selling out through five reprints, where things sit with the fine, the Givealittle campaign for his new emergency-response inventions, and a few stories about strangers picking the wrong guy that didn't make the original cut.

Mark's Givealittle page is funding two emergency-response innovations he's developing - a firefighting tank for Black Hawk helicopters and a rapidly deployable bridge for disaster zones. To support that work: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/mark-law-and-his-kahu-nz-company-supported-by

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

Louis Davis is the biggest content creator in New Zealand - 3.8 million followers, 3.5 billion views in a year, and TikTok Creator of the Year. But the numbers are, in his words, background noise.

In this episode he takes us back to where it started: a kid from Te Tai Tokerau whose mother told him at five that his words would change the world, a father who showed him what it means to love your family, and the teachers who saw something in him when his school reports said otherwise.

He talks about building a career no one gave him permission to have, why he moved home to raise his kids on his whenua, what he wants the world to understand about Māori fathers, and the philosophy behind being "delusionally aspirational" for as long as you can.

His new book, The Modern Dad, is out now.

Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.

Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.

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