Baskets Of Knowledge

When you think about young people, you think about young people in class studying, playing sports, hanging with friends, having fun....our guest this week does all that AND is also running an entrepreneurial venture that is shaking up the sustainability world. Elisa Harley, our guest this week speaks to us passionately about her business idea, how it came about, where it is now and what the future...

Game on! Meet our next guest, Zeena Khan: Leader, Speaker & Author. Zeena is a dynamic individual of Chinese, Fijian, and Indian descent, from South Auckland she moved to Wellington 5yrs ago, seeking adventure & opportunity to lean in with curiosity. A champion of lifelong learning with a multifaceted background, Zeena also has an artistic side, having published her first poetry book in 20...

This week's guest is well known in Edutech for changing the face of education. A key learning from his mother when he was young has been instrumental in Jamie Beaton lifting the perceived barriers that young people have in New Zealand to be able to study in some of the Top Universities in North America. In this really inspiring conversation we talk about what is the motivation for Jamie to kee...

Growing up, our guest this week thought that working in the health industry was what she was destined for. However, after one year of dabbling in this space, she pivoted from health to tech. This change opened up opportunities galore for our guest Magdeline Huang. With her role as a software engineer now, Magdeline speaks to us about how delving into tech unlocked a whole new world for her. We als...

Growing up in the tiny, yet populous, nation of Singapore our guest this week had no intention of leaving his home country to study. He comes from a family that is very closely connected and a country that seems to have it all (on first glance) However, our guest this week talks to us about how his mindset changed has he went through National Service and engaged in conversations that got him think...

Have you ever wanted to know what you need to do to be successful?  On this week's episode we have Kale Panaho talk about how he fostered a success mindset to help him get to where he is now. In this conversation we touch on Kale's journey on his Māori identity, we speak about how it all started with Kale training to be a personal trainer, studying biochem then how his circle of influence ...

On this week's episode we are treated to Shaniyah Munroe sharing her story with us. As someone that realised that she was academically able, she was worried about the cost of attending University. However, Shaniyah talks to us about how a scholarship from Victoria University of Wellington and First Foundation changed her life trajectory. We speak about the impact that her mentor had on her jou...

As we have just passed the shortest day in the year for the Southern Hemisphere the episode is a short reflection point where we share our learnings since the last episode but also a good time to reflect on the podcast and where each of us are right now. We would LOVE for you to share your reflections as we head into the second half of the year. Enjoy Prajesh and Tane

Following the "normal" life trajectory is the way our guest this week was living her life as she looked to go to university to get a "normal" career. However, having picked up the sport of rowing late in her teenage years our guest received an offer out of the blue that presented her the opportunity to study in the United States on a rowing scholarship. This week Grace Lewis ta...

Growing up in Dunedin, New Zealand our guest this week speaks about the importance that his whanau/family has had in his life. This became more evident as Nick Parata started to explore, learn and embrace his Māori identity. We speak about how this was and has not always been an easy exploration especially as humans use outward appearances to make judgement calls about a person. A trait that we ca...

Growing up in india our guest this week would never in a million years think that he would be sitting in an office in New Zealand talking about the journey that has taken him halfway across the world. This week Rakesh Banerjee talks to us about how growing up in india he had never thought that he would end up in New Zealand. His life story has many ups and downs has Rakesh relates the story about...

The universe works in crazy ways! This week's guest happened to come on at the same time that the skies were being lit up around the world with the Aurora's and at the same time power companies around the world were warning customers about possible network outages. You might think what has this got to do with our guest? Well the inspirational Aleida Powell is someone who works in the power...

As we think about our lives, we all go through certain stages where things happen. These are a mixture of the "good" the "bad" and sometimes the "ugly". Our guest this week summarises this really well as she speaks to us about how different phases of her life led to growth at different parts of her life. Manpreet Dhanjal talks to us this week about how from being someone that was a super homebody...

This week our guest grew up in a small rural community in the South Island of New Zealand. It was in this community that our guest embraced the beauty and the fragility of nature. Being an island nation, New Zealand native flora and fauna is, like other island nations, always under threat from invasive species. This is where our conversation with Anna Clark starts. However, as the title says, Anna...

This week's episode is a hard hitting and very powerful chat with our guest who shares her journey of being a woman,  a woman of colour,  a woman of colour who wears a hijab Our guest Salma Abdalla talks to us about navigating the question "Where are you from?" How that question has so many layers and so many answers that provide a rich tapestry for our conversation. We talk about th...

Our guest this week has been leaving an impact in all the mahi/work that he is involved in. However, in this episode we go right back to where it all started from. We speak to Luis Perez about arriving in New Zealand as a refugee. He has used his experience to provide platforms such as Voice of Aroha to allow people that live in minority ethnic communities to share their stories. We also delve int...

Our guest this week shares a story that should inspire anyone that hears it to stop for a moment to think about what their real passion for doing things is. Sean Prenter shares his story about an accident that changed the trajectory of his life. This change has resulted in Sean becoming an advocate for marginalised young people in education. In this episode we speak about the various projects and...

Trigger warning, this podcast touches on suicide, If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please reach out immediately a professional to help you. On this week's podcast the passion, the drive and the mission our guest Jack Jensen has is palpable throughout the whole conversation. We speak to Jack about the creation of MSFT Productions and how that tapped into a s...

A scientist at heart our guest this week Sneha talks to us about the journey that she has undergone as she has taken her love for science at school to complete her degree in an area she enjoys. This conversation explores that journey, but we also get to chat about Sneha's passion for helping young people which resulted in her choosing to be an RA for two years before taking up her current role...

Dancing and being on stage, if we had told this weeks guest that one day he would be showing his pride for his culture and upbringing through dance he would have told us we were dreaming. This is just one of the areas we get to speak about with our fantastic guest Teja Depuru this week. Teja talks to us about growing up as the child of new immigrants to New Zealand. The importance that his family...

Born in Barbados but raised in the winterless North in New Zealand, our guest this week uses the energy and learnings from his formative years in Northland to power him in all that he does. Kii Small is a creative hustler who has teamed up with some like minded people to develop platforms that allow for individuals to better understand their mental health, as well as understand historical contexts...

Growing up in the Philippines our guest today moved with his family to small town Hawera where he discovered something called rugby and a community that was really welcoming.  Education has always been something that was normalised in his family. Peter Remoto talks to us about how he was unsure what to study when he first started at University but decided to have some physics and some chemistry in...

Change is part of life, but we all approach this in different ways. In this weeks episode we explore some key phases of change faced as they moved from school to uni, from uni to work and all the various changes along the way. Our guest Ozair talks to us about how he used discipline, consistency and faith to help him navigate his path. We talk about the joys of finding new friends and embracing th...

Coming from a household where teaching has always been the profession of choice, this weeks guest had decided that she would break the mould and try something different. However, as we all know, life has a funny way of working things out and we speak to our guest about how she has found herself in a classroom being a teacher.  During this episode we also speak about how life has thrown Ghananta he...

This week we have a throwback to a guest from Episode 19, at that time Marcus was at the start of his study journey and spoke about the journey he was undergoing then with his identity as being Māori. In this episode we speak to a very different person who has faced the disappointment of not getting into a professional health program. We speak about how this was the best worst thing to have happen...