Take It From Us with Kent Johns

Liz Downes is a Peer Support Specialist and Associate Professional Lead at Counties Manukau Health, working alongside people with shared lived experience of bipolar disorder. Liz trained as a nurse. After having her first baby, she developed postnatal depression. When her baby turned one, she had a psychotic episode and was diagnosed with bipolar. She's lived with bipolar for 30 years. Five y...

Bex Waugh and Rich Rowley are self-described as 'neuro-spicy' - and they're on a mission to help workplaces understand the value neurodivergent people bring. They're the force behind Neurofusion , an organisation helping people and workplaces find their flow - doing work that suits their cognitive style, not fighting against it. Bex got her ADHD diagnosis after her daughter was...

Suzette Jackson has just submitted her PhD in social work at the University of Auckland, researching a unique drug treatment program for pregnant women and mothers at Higher Ground in Auckland. Suzette is 13 years in recovery from drug addiction. Her research followed seven women - five of them Māori - at the apex of need: living in cars, multiple children removed, severe family violence. Her big...

Asha Munn is an art psychotherapist, EMDR therapist and founder of Breathing Space Charitable Trust . At university, Asha got unwell and didn't think she'd return for her final year. Art healed her - she made work every day, figured out her future, and decided to become a therapist. Asha's approach: no assumptions, no judgment, no analysis. Art therapy isn't about analysing wor...

Lynda Hills is a suicide researcher studying for a PhD at Auckland University, and her lived experience is informing her research. Seventeen years ago, Lynda tried to take her own life. She was left with critical injuries and has undergone nearly 50 surgeries. She had to learn to walk again. Lynda's research focuses on akathisia - a side effect of antidepressants and antipsychotics that resea...

Rose Heta-Minhinnick and her daughter Arohanui Minhinnik run Te Waa Charitable Trust, helping young people and their families in Waiuku, southwest of Auckland. Rose is 12 years in recovery from alcohol and gambling addiction. She knows the progression - the buildup of disappointment, the rock bottom, the fear of losing her children. That fear was enough. Now she advocates for law change in New Zea...

Ten years ago, online harassment followed Anna Ashton everywhere - she couldn't escape by changing schools or moving homes. She became agoraphobic, was misdiagnosed with social anxiety, and eventually attempted suicide. Her clinician didn't understand digital harm. There were no assessment tools, no training on grooming, catfishing, or sextortion. Anna had to teach her clinician the term...

Dom Huxley is the General Manager of Surfing for Farmers, a grassroots organisation helping the rural community through surf therapy. Since 2018, over 8,000 farmers have taken part across 25 beaches around New Zealand. Dom is a former professional mountaineer who spent years in corporate roles before finding his calling in the charity sector. Dom's vision is to expand to all coasts, move inla...

Riqi Harawira's band Dead Flowers used to play in front of tens of thousands, supporting acts like Guns N' Roses and Pearl Jam.  Now Riqi works at Man Alive in West Auckland, helping men build better relationships. Riqi is a survivor of addiction, and sexual abuse in foster care. Now he's helping other men work through their own darkness. And he's making new music with a messag...

Ben Purua is a South Waikato farmer who grew up in South Auckland surrounded by poverty, gangs and violence. He joined a gang at 13. At 16, he was sent to prison for manslaughter. Ben discovered farming while in Waikeria Prison - working on the prison farm gave him a sense of freedom and belonging he'd never felt before. When he was released in 2015, his employer took a chance on him, and he&...

Dr. Moana Tane is the chief executive of Tauranga Living Without Violence, and she's challenging the assumptions we make about domestic violence. It's not rooted in socioeconomic hardship. Overwhelmingly, violence in the home is committed by men regardless of race or status.  Moana's work began in Australia managing health services. When she moved into social services, she noticed s...

Josh Komen was a gun athlete with aspirations to run the 800 metres for New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games - until a cancer diagnosis changed everything. Josh's life was tipped on its head. He spent five years in Australia getting specialised treatment for Graft-versus-Host-Disease after a stem cell transplant. His new immune system was attacking his body. He suffered 12 heart attacks in M...

Maree MacLean is an author and publisher who has helped countless people with her guides to sobriety. Her first book, The No Bullshit Guide to Getting Sober, became an Audible bestseller in 2023. Maree lost her brother Stu to alcoholism at 37 - he died in her arms at Auckland Hospital. Her own drinking started in her twenties, masked by media work and weekend partying. When she went freelance and...

For years, Georgie Hanafin thought she was just a bad person. She struggled at school, couldn't maintain friendships, overthought every conversation. At 34, she realised she had OCD and ADHD. Getting help became its own nightmare. Emergency departments dismissed her. Crisis lines let her down. The system wouldn't listen. In October 2022, desperate and burnt out, Georgie did something dra...

Ian Walker has survived two catastrophic spinal cord injuries - one in 2006 when his bicycle hit a truck, another in 2019 when a 4x4 dragged his hand-cycle 15 metres down the road.   After 13 days in a coma, nothing woke him - until broadcaster Jason Pine started talking about his favourite football team, Liverpool FC, on Radio Sport. Ian clenched his fist and slowly came back.  Instead of fixatin...

Debbs Murray endured nearly eight years of coercive control before her dad saw the knife-slashed bed where her ex-partner thought she'd been sleeping... that moment forced her to finally call the police and leave. Debbs is now the founder of Eclipse Family Violence Services , training over 6,500 frontline responders and practitioners. Her mission: teaching people that coercive control - the p...

Lisa Reid's first proper relationship breakup sent her spiralling. What started as weekend drinking turned into trying meth at a party - just to feel numb, just to forget. Within six to eight weeks, she was using daily. Within ten months, she'd lost $100,000, her dogs, her home, and nearly her life. At 3am one February morning, sitting on her bedroom floor in tears, Lisa wrote a letter f...

Growing up as a queer Korean New Zealander, Romy Lee lived between two worlds with two different sets of expectations. The identity dissonance and isolation drove her to substances as a teenager - a solution that worked until it didn't. After moving overseas thinking a geographical change would fix everything, Romy had a realisation: it wasn't the environment, it was her. That moment led...

Former All Black Steve Devine spent two years bedridden with migraines after multiple concussions ended his rugby career. Jack Newman got to 142 kilos, hadn't exercised since 2015, and in 2014 came dangerously close to ending his life - a moment he didn't talk about for nine years. Both are now Movember ambassadors, speaking openly about the hardest thing men struggle with: asking for he...

At the height of his rugby career, former Blues captain and cult star Tom Robinson walked away from the sport he loved. Behind the big tackles and big hair was a growing fear - anxiety over concussions and the long-term effects of head knocks. In this episode, Tom shares how his mind became his toughest opponent, what it took to step away, and how yoga and mindfulness helped him find peace beyond...

In November 2020, Camille Keyte was arrested for dealing methamphetamine for a senior Mongrel Mob member. She'd been addicted since 14, using daily since 17. She'd lost her house, her business, her children. She had three pages of criminal charges and had tried to take her own life multiple times. On the run for a week with a warrant out, Camille finally realised the drugs weren't w...

Jo Randerson was diagnosed with ADHD at 46, then autism this year - diagnoses that finally explained the parts of their life that never quite made sense. The theatre-maker and author talks honestly about how neurodiversity shapes both their creative work and their parenting. Jo wears a lot of hats. Their book  " Secret Art Powers " makes the case that creative thinking isn't just fo...

Sean Barnes co-founded the Christchurch chapter of WNOW (When No One's Watching) - a global movement where men gather at 6am every Wednesday for exercise, conversation, and coffee. It's simple, but that's the point. The format includes 60 pushups together to honour the 60 men globally who take their lives every hour. Sean talks about "social fitness" - how maintaining frie...

Wayne Webb was drowning in addiction and darkness when tragedy struck close to home. In his grief, his pain became visible to someone who asked if he was okay - that question changed everything. Now Wayne creates messages of hope in the sand at New Brighton Beach every day. After decades using alcohol and drugs to cope, he discovered that "busy hands mean a settled brain." What started a...

When Fiona Parrant's sister Charlene was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Fiona moved from Levin to Napier to help care for her - and for Charlene's husband, Alister, who had early onset Alzheimer's at just 60. After Charlene died, Fiona stayed in Napier to continue caring for Alister and help support his two sons. New Zealand's dementia care system is broken. Despite being our...