Everyday Warriors Podcast

Send us Fan Mail A social worker and a police officer turn up at a child’s school and say, “You’re coming with us, you won’t be coming home tonight.” Tracy remembers her knees going weak, not from fear, but relief: “Oh my God, I’ve been saved.” That moment opens a conversation you won’t forget about childhood trauma, foster care abuse, and what it takes to rebuild a life when safety was never guar...

Send us Fan Mail A single phone call can split your life into before and after and Chelsea still carries the exact timestamp: 11:34 p.m. She was in the final stretch of an undergraduate psychology thesis in forensic psychology, proud she’d gained the trust of a serial killer for her research, when real life hit harder than any true crime story. Her brother was arrested after a man was shot and kil...

Send us Fan Mail Most people only meet police on their worst day, then assume they understand the job. We don’t and that gap is where judgement, stigma and burnout grow. I’m joined by Tom for a blunt, grounded conversation about what law enforcement really demands. We talk about why people join, why “get a steady job” isn’t enough and why a service-connected medical retirement doesn’t make anyone...

Send us Fan Mail She thought the answer to her problems was another man, another night out, another bottle hidden just well enough to get through the day. Helen takes us back to 2013, when alcohol addiction and chaotic thinking collided with motherhood, marriage and crushing shame, until one blunt truth cut through the fog. Her kids loved her, but they were scared of her. That moment leads to reha...

Send us Fan Mail A propane truck, a failed valve, a cloud of freezing fuel and a fireball that wiped out a whole workshop and changed Sean’s life in an instant. Calling in from Idaho, Shaun walks us through the day in March 2018 when he was burned across 46% of his body and made a decision that still stuns me, he sprinted for a snowbank and lay there to cool down. Doctors later told him that one i...

Send us Fan Mail One moment you’re building a future, the next you’re learning how to breathe through the ruins. I’m joined by Cass from Queensland for a raw conversation about grief in its many forms, and how it can show up not just after death, but after a business closes, a career ends or your body finally says “enough”. Cass shares what happened when she launched a brick and mortar venue in Ip...

Send us Fan Mail “My body is the crime scene.” When Shalina says that, everything about trauma clicks into place, because you can’t walk away from the place it happened when the place is you. Shalina talks about sexual assault, online safety and the brutal confusion that follows when harm comes from someone you trusted. She shares what life was like as a teenager facing bullying and racism, how on...

Send us Fan Mail Two years ago I hit record without a perfect plan, just a voice and a steady belief that honest stories can make someone feel less alone. Today, the Everyday Warriors Podcast turns two, and this bonus episode is my pause to acknowledge what we’ve built together. A quiet, human space for resilience, healing and hope. I share what the last two years have looked like behind the scene...

Send us Fan Mail A relationship ends, the coping spirals start, and then a knock at the door changes everything. Gav takes us back to New Year’s Eve 1995 and the years that follow, when anger, anxiety, partying and marijuana are masking a deeper fear of failure. Then his boys’ mum makes a decision that flips the script, the kids come to live with him and he’s no longer a “weekend dad”. He has to b...

Send us Fan Mail Some bodies don’t give you a clear “stop” signal. They just keep going, past normal range, past safe, and you only find out when something hurts. I’m joined by Claire, a UK-trained physiotherapist now living on New Zealand’s South Island, to talk about hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome from the inside out, not as a trend, but as a lifelong reality that shapes how you move,...

Send us Fan Mail A twin birth, a smooth labour and then a jolt of fear. One baby thriving, the other struggling to breathe. That’s where Cherie’s story begins and it never lets go. We follow her from the long months of “wait and see,” through a 16‑month diagnosis of Williams syndrome, to the everyday reality of feeding battles, surgeries, toilet training that took years and the constant recalibrat...

Send us Fan Mail A redheaded kid called a nobody, a 22-year-old worker broken by a boss’s spit-flecked tirade and a silent drive past home to a crowded Blue Mountains lookout. A moment when the clouds parted, a late Nana’s voice rang clear and a single phone call lasted four and a half hours. Adam’s story is tender, raw and unflinching about suicidal ideation, the mental fog before the act and the...

Send us Fan Mail Big sights drew us in, but the small moments did the heavy lifting. Across seven weeks we threaded a tight Tokyo layover, San Francisco’s storied streets, the bright blur of Las Vegas, sweeping Texas plains and the deep hush of New Mexico caverns, collecting memories and lessons that linger.  From Alcatraz after dark and the Golden Gate’s twin vantage points to a misty walk in Mui...

Send us Fan Mail How a marriage slowly tightened into coercive control. We sit down with Manisha to trace the subtle beginnings of abuse, rules about food and clothes, isolation disguised as tradition and the long arc toward reclaiming safety, dignity and voice. What starts as cultural expectation becomes gaslighting, invisible bruises and sexual coercion designed to leave no evidence. The most se...

Send us Fan Mail A single slip on a wet morning changed everything. Rosie spent 42 years as a research nurse, then a head injury, a misdiagnosis and an atypical stroke forced a brutal reset. What followed wasn’t a neat comeback arc, rather a slow, honest rebuild guided by hope, intuition and the surprising medicine of art. We dive into the reality of post-concussion syndrome, the pressure to perfo...

Send us Fan Mail A house build in Cape Town changed everything. Christopher had the degrees, the London job and the momentum. Yet one day volunteering added two dimensions to travel that a corner office never could, genuine connection with local people and the joy of making a lasting difference. We explore how that spark became Hands Up Holidays, a tailor-made way for families to blend adventure w...

Send us Fan Mail One sentence changed everything. Tina walked into a wellness talk determined to starve herself back into control and walked out with a new mission: stop the slow self-harm and start choosing life. What follows is a brave, unfiltered account of how a childhood comment and a teenage jab spiralled into years of disordered eating, fad diets, five coffees a day and a marriage stretched...

Send us Fan Mail Some moments split a life into before and after. When Matt was eight, a phone call about his mum’s fatal motorcycle accident shattered the version of childhood where safety felt assumed. What followed was a quiet agreement many of us make without words. To be perfect, pleasing and fine so no one else leaves. Years later, a high school essay cracked open the grief he’d pushed down,...

Send us Fan Mail What if the hardest years of your life became the foundation for your boldest work? We sit down with Rhiannon, a single mum, artist and survivor who turned bipolar type 2 and C-PTSD into a creative engine, building a 1700 m² exhibition that celebrates women’s stories of struggle and strength. This is a fearless conversation about poverty, stigma, trauma and the radical power of ar...

Send us Fan Mail Some stories start with a roadmap. Ours begins on the side of a highway, smoke from a sliced radiator curling into the night while Dayelene and her son lie on a picnic rug, laughing at the chaos and choosing to keep moving.  From Airlie Beach’s endless summer to Victoria’s four seasons in a day, this is a candid journey through starting over, co‑parenting after domestic violence a...

Send us Fan Mail This is my longest episode yet but it deserves ALL the time to tell this incredible Everyday Warriors story! What if “being strong” is the very thing keeping you from healing? Shaunace's story starts with speed, a senior OT by her mid‑20s, a mortgage, a wedding to plan and a body built for aerial silks and pole. Then breast cancer hits. She keeps it secret, rushes back to wor...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when your entire world collapses around you? For Bridgette, April 2020 brought an unimaginable storm – serious legal proceedings against her family's investment business, followed just two days later by the birth of her daughter Emerald, all during the earliest and most uncertain days of the pandemic. In this raw and moving conversation, Bridgette reveals how she...

Send us Fan Mail What if everything that happens in your life isn't happening to you, but for you? This perspective-shifting conversation with Jackie explores how reframing our challenges can transform our entire experience of life. Jackie's journey begins with a simple yet profound "aha moment" when she realized how certain relationships were depleting her energy. This awarene...

Send us Fan Mail Facing the open ocean despite a lifelong fear of water and motion sickness wasn't exactly how I'd planned to celebrate turning 50. Yet there I was, boarding a cruise ship for the first time, determined to make this milestone birthday unforgettable. My 10-day journey through the South Pacific became so much more than a holiday. It transformed into a personal voyage of con...

Send us Fan Mail When a doctor's call on a lazy Sunday afternoon revealed that his wife Lynn had stage four lung cancer, Tony Stewart's world imploded. What followed was a six-year rollercoaster of clinical trials, spine surgeries, moments of hope and crushing setbacks as they navigated life with terminal illness.  Throughout Lynn's cancer journey, Tony took on the role of dedicated...