Between Two Beers Podcast

Becki Ross was given two to three years to live. Diagnosed at 42 with stage four, incurable bowel cancer, she's a mum of two teenagers, a teacher, and one of those rare people who lights up a room the second she walks in. When we recorded this, Becki had just been told her treatment options had run out - that the cancer was, in her words, "declaring itself," and that her time is now very short. In...

Steven and Seamus go behind the scenes of the Izzy Dagg episode that's gone massive - the research calls, why Izzy almost didn't tell his story, and the reaction that's followed since. Plus: the new dream guest list - who's next after Graham Norton - a big week for the team, emceeing the Master Builders House of the Year awards, and commentating Auckland FC v Tottenham. A very special episode drop...

Israel Dagg had everything he'd ever chased - a Rugby World Cup, a young family, the life a kid from a Hawke's Bay state house could only dream of. Then he retired, and the question underneath it all hit at once: “if I'm not an All Black, who am I?” In one of the most open conversations we've had on the show, Israel comes clean on the five years that followed - the addiction, the depression, and t...

We are back from the World Cup with a case of post-event blues and a bigger question: we built our dream - but, is it still the dream? In this consolidation episode, we share our lists about what we want the next two and a half years to look like - and discover how closely aligned we’ve become. Di digs into what "important" means now that the podcast is commercially sound, why neither of us is a n...

Justine Smith has been a fixture of New Zealand comedy for more than 30 years - a Seven Days regular and one of the few women who lasted in a room that pushed most others out. She opens up on the comedy environment younger women were up against, the treatment she swallowed to keep going, and how she turned that guilt into becoming the person the next generation of female comics now comes to. She's...

We debrief on Seamus' dream guest, Graham Norton - with Sammy and Char on the mics to break down how it went, and how dusty Steve was at the 5.30am start. Then the boys dig into whether there's anything to the Argentina World Cup conspiracy doing the rounds, before Steve gets Che’s take on surviving the school holidays and the "spare part" phase of early parenting (plus the questions kids fire at...

He's spent nearly 30 years getting the world's biggest stars to open up - but Graham Norton rarely sits on the other side of the mic. The most famous chat show host on the planet pulls back the curtain on his craft: the psychology of who sits where on that famous sofa, why the guests always outrank him, and the research ritual that's funnier than the show itself. He also goes somewhere he almost n...

You can pour everything into the biggest thing you'll ever build - and still find the part you remember has nothing to do with the work. Fresh off three weeks at the FIFA World Cup in North America, Steven and Seamus sit down with their business coach Di Foster for a proper mid-year debrief: the enormity of what they pulled off (19 daily shows, four partners, a whole TV operation), the studio they...

He's got a championship ring his own kids have never seen - it lives in a closet. Scott Goldman is a high-performance psychologist who's spent 30 years inside some of the biggest teams in world sport, including the Golden State Warriors, and works across five professional franchises at once. His whole philosophy flips how you think about success: you're not your talent, you're your talent times yo...

The boys are back on home soil to unpack the most chaotic three weeks of the show's life. They relive the Radio & Podcast Awards and unpack the World Cup experience: 19 daily shows in a row for Between Two Goals, the flying Kiwis march to the Egypt game, Finn Surman's header, and 45 minutes of the best football either of them has ever watched - before the Belgium reality check. Along the way:...

Jason Gunn is one of New Zealand's most beloved entertainers - but behind the energy, the warmth, and the laugh, is a man who has faced some of life's hardest moments. In this episode, Jase opens up about suffering a heart attack at 47, and the moment lying in a hospital bed when his life's priorities became crystal clear. He talks about his son Louis - then a teenager - ripping up his radio contr...

Seamus arrives feeling it: New baby at home. A World Cup project about to go live. A calendar that was built before either of those things was certain, now collapsing on top of each other. He's saying yes to everything - commentary gigs, MC slots, the lot. And somewhere underneath all of it, he's saying no to the people who matter most without realising that's what he's doing. This one covers the...

Rob Cope has spoken to over 40,000 New Zealand parents about the dangers hiding in their children's online world. In this episode, he delivers the talk every parent needs to hear - and pulls no punches doing it. They cover the reality of what kids are accessing online, why good kids in good homes aren't protected, the neuroscience of screen addiction, what the government is getting wrong, practica...

New Zealand drew 2-2 with Iran in one of the great All Whites performances - scoring twice, leading twice, and finishing top of Group G on goal difference. Eli Just became the first All White to score twice at a World Cup. Steve and Seamus were inside SoFi Stadium in LA when it happened. This episode, recorded the morning after, is their unfiltered reaction from the ground - what the game felt lik...

Steve Braunias sat through every day of the Polkinghorne trial - the society murder that gripped New Zealand - and wrote the bestselling book on it. He liked the accused. He chatted with him every morning. And he more than entertains the possibility that Phil Polkinghorne is an innocent man. In this episode, Steve takes us inside the eight weeks that felt like "a carnival": the forensic evidence t...

Di Foster arrived ready to coach. Then she realised the smartest coaching move was to stop coaching. In this episode she explains why: Between Two Beers is in ‘execution season’, and what sport understands about seasons and rhythms is something most businesses never name. We get into why Steve and Seamus are slightly misaligned on what they really want, the delegation trap of "it takes 2 minutes t...

Futurist Frances Valintine (founder of Academy X and Tech Futures Lab) joins the show to map what New Zealand actually looks like in twenty years, and it's a sobering picture. We're one of the fastest-changing populations on earth: ageing fast, with a birth rate well below replacement and a workforce shrinking from four people per retiree toward just two. Her warning is that we're already late to...

The boys are back behind the scenes, and the World Cup is almost here. Seamus and Steve break down the wild Tim Payne phenomenon - how an All Whites right-back with 4,000 followers became bigger than the All Blacks in 48 hours after an Argentinian content creator made him the face of the tournament. Seamus has known Tim since he was 16, and with Between Two Goals heading into the exact camp that's...

Matthew Ridge is one of New Zealand's most recognisable sporting figures - All Blacks captain, NRL star, television personality. But behind the swagger and the highlights reel is a story most people have never heard. Originally released in 2024 and one of our most popular episodes, we're bringing this one back because it deserves to be heard again. Ridgey sits down with Steve and Seamus to tell it...

It’s been our biggest six months ever - landing on TVNZ+, heading to the World Cup, and sitting down with Steven Adams. Steve and Seamus sit down with business and mindset coach Di Foster to pull back the curtain on how it all actually came together, the chaos behind the scenes, and what it really takes to turn a podcast into a mainstream media brand. They break down the TVNZ deal, how they landed...

For 20 years, Darren Shand was the most powerful person in All Blacks rugby that nobody knew about. As Team Manager across four Rugby World Cups - including the back-to-back title wins of 2011 and 2015 - Shand sat above the coaches, managed the operation, and helped build the cultural architecture of the most successful international rugby team in history. He worked alongside Sir Graham Henry, Sir...

This week on Hambassadors, Steve and Seamus reveal their biggest project yet: a dedicated All Whites fan show heading to Vancouver for the FIFA World Cup. They're going in camp with the team, bringing the families, and building something that hasn't been done before in New Zealand sports media. Also this week: a behind-the-scenes look at the Joseph Parker x Barkers event (with some Chatham House r...

Stacey Morrison has been a fixture of New Zealand television and radio for thirty years - but this is the story behind the story. In this episode she opens up about growing up embarrassed by her Māori identity, a gruelling fifteen year journey to te reo fluency, the heartbreaking loss of her mum Sue, and finding the love she never thought she'd have with Scotty Morrison. Between Two Beers is proud...

Steve sits down with our business and mindset coach Di Foster for a candid 1:1 coaching session. They get into what it really means to be a 'good bugger' in business, whether values alone are enough to build something lasting, and the identity shift that happens when your business starts moving faster than you expected. They also tackle the team question - why having the right people around you is...

Nate Alley grew up in Tokoroa without a father, got kicked out of school at 16, and spent the better part of a decade angry, lost, and making decisions he's not proud of. Today he runs his own Sentinel Homes franchise in the Waikato, with nearly 200 million dollars in construction work completed over the last decade. In this episode Nate speaks publicly for the first time about his upbringing, a f...