Podvan Podcast with Rabbit

Two Indian blokes walked past the Podvan while I was recording with Billy Mac, and what started as a casual chat turned into one of the most eye-opening conversations I've had on the podcast! Jag and Lakshman are from a country of 1.46 billion people!! (Whaaaaaat?!?) We chat through the biggest differences between Indian and Australian culture, cricket obsession, the constant friendliness of I...

I've been quietly building something for the last year. It launches on July 1st. And I'm absolutely terrified. Edit the Pod is an online podcast editing site that does all the heavy lifting before you even open the project. You upload your recording (audio or video) and behind the scenes it's transcribing, working out who's talking when, automatically cutting the camera angles if i...

Billy Mac is back! Last time we talked trauma, footy, and what it's really like to carry PTSD for decades. This time we get into what happens to the people around you when you're living with it. Warning: There's a story early on about a baby seat he found in a car accident. It's really heavy (we don't go into details - but and can easily skip past that bit), but it stayed with...

When your homebrew hobby wins competitions, you might think: I could do this for a living! Well... Chris thought that. What followed was 13 years of growth, a stunning new venue, and then a twist they just didn't see coming. Today, I'm sitting down with Chris and Sharon, the owners of Six String Brewing Co , to talk about what happens when demand suddenly disappears, when costs triple duri...

Last year, I got diagnosed with ADHD, and it explains literally everything. If you liked last week's episode with my guest Kylie (KK), you'll enjoy this one. We started chatting about my diagnosis. It turns out I've spent my entire life running on ADHD energy without knowing it. The psychiatrist told me I've essentially forged an entire career out of it. Which, when you think about...

In this sprawling, hilarious, and surprisingly moving conversation, I catch up with a long-time mate from Adelaide radio days who (in her new job) has learned to castrate goats, keep bees, run three massive fundraising gala balls, and personally escort a fugitive through Cambodia - all while never missing a single sports day for her kids. The story is awesome. 10 years ago, our mate Cosi started a...

What happens when a Canadian psychologist becomes a high school teacher on the Central Coast and decides her Year 9 students need to see the world? That's Brenda's story, and it's the kind of thing that makes you wonder why more people aren't doing this. (I reckon you'll love this episode!) Brenda's been organising community give-back trips for her students – building house...

Julie Goodwin walked into Donut King, ordered a coffee and two cinnamon donuts, and was immediately offended. This story is soooo funny! In today's episode, we get into blood tests, sleep deprivation, and the utter chaos of watching a five-year-old play soccer - while totally distracted by something way more interesting... Julie also shares something genuinely useful about how she tests her re...

What do a teenager with swimming goggles, a half-eaten Nutella cruffin, and a 20yr old x-ray result all have in common? They all turned up in one conversation with my daughter Tiana, and every single one of them broke my brain a little. Have you seen any kids wandering around shopping centres with swimming goggles around their necks? We can explain it! We also talk about a kinda secret (and awesom...

This one starts with a warning… and a story that sounds like it belongs in a crime scene, not a bathroom. Kyla from Cakes By Kyla jumps back into the van, and within minutes we’re talking about the recent moment she blacked out, hit the floor, and woke up surrounded by blood with no idea how she got there. It’s hectic, a bit scary, and somehow still very Kyla. But underneath that story is somethin...

If your kid has ever picked up a clarinet… there’s a fair chance this bloke had something to do with it. Rowan McBride joins me in the van, and if you grew up on the Central Coast, you probably already know his name. He’s been running school band programs for over 20 years, shaping thousands of young musicians and watching everything from first-day squeaks to full-blown “that was the best thing I’...

I asked for driving stories… and got everything from written-off cars to someone literally driving into a fridge. This one’s a bit different. You’ll hear from Leanne, Karen, Britney, Katrina and Harrison as I jump on the phone and collect some absolute ripper stories about getting your Ls, Ps and everything that can go wrong in between. It all started with my daughter getting her Ls and our first...

I did not expect to be talking about sexy cockroaches today… but here we are. This week, I'm joined by the absolutely brilliant Ed and Amanda from the Not Quite Right podcast, and we get into some pretty wild territory! They're here to chat about their latest project, "Flesh Fiction" – a writing competition and now a book that challenged authors to make the unsexy, utterly irresi...

Up for a laugh? Julie is back in the podvan, and things go off the rails almost immediately. What starts as a nice catch-up quickly turns into a deeply important discussion about gyrocopters, and why calling a stranger on Easter Saturday about flying one over the Central Coast feels totally reasonable. Along the way, we get into the viral Gosford waterfront video, suspicious urns found under the h...

I finally made it to the Principal’s office without copping a suspension! I sat down with Murray Balfe, the man at the helm of Lisarow High School, to find out what life is really like on the other side of the desk. We get into the nitty-gritty of the mobile phone ban, how AI is actually being used in the classroom, and the surprising reason why some of the biggest "dropouts" can end up...

In this Quick Fix episode (a shorter bit from a full episode from a couple of years ago!) I'm hitting the pavement with Adam from Ruksak for a proper walk and talk. Adam opens up about his "decade of destruction" where business success came at the cost of a 16.3 cholesterol level and a shock cancer diagnosis. We chat about the reality of being a "health hacker," the struggl...

Natalie King is a Clinical Psychologist who has spent the last decade specialising exclusively in couples therapy, and she joins me to pull apart why we react the way we do when things get heated. We explore the "Pursuer-Withdrawal" dynamic (when one person needs to talk it out right now while the other needs to walk away) and how our childhood "stuff" is usually the invisible...

Tam and Kathy have a couple of cracking stories about those mortifying moments when your kids repeat something they definitely shouldn't have. We hear about a three year old who learned the entire, very adult vocabulary of a certain song, and a little boy who chose the worst moment at a checkout to quote a movie line to a stranger! It is a hilarious reminder that little ears are always listeni...

We first met Mel Bean a few weeks back during our side hustle chat, but I knew the second we started talking that she had a much bigger story to tell. Today, Mel shares her incredible journey through a Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis and why she made the brave, personal choice to follow her intuition when it came to her treatment. Mel is the founder of In Harmony Qigong on the Central Coast, and s...

Julie drops by the Podvan to talk up the joys of op shopping and why her whole family keeps bumping into each other at Vinnies (including some very questionable smelling coats - which is VERY funny!) Plus, I share the brilliant story of how T-Pain pulled off the ultimate 30th birthday surprise for Meghan Trainor, and Jessica joins us to explain how her dad became a master of misdirection by hackin...

This is one of my favourite episodes ever! Jason Van Genderen is a world-class storyteller who started a revolution when he ended up on the big stage in New York City - winning one of the world's most prestigious short film festivals with a device most people only used for Snake! Beyond the bright lights of New York, Jason shares incredible stories from his recent trip to Kenya - including why...

In this Quick Fix episode I catch up with two of our legends from the Podvan community, Tara and Kylie, to hear about the incredible friendships they sparked while holidaying. We get into the story of a 22 year friendship that started on a Sydney jetboat, a solo mission to Rome that resulted in a lifelong travel buddy, and the reason why Kylie actually prefers a rocky cruise ship over a smooth one...

Natalie and I are getting into the nitty-gritty of why so many couples hit a wall once the kids finally pack their bags... It’s a weird, quiet transition where the three or four-bedroom house suddenly feels way too big and you realise you haven’t actually had a real conversation with the person across the table in years. Natalie King from The READ Clinic joins me in the van to talk about Empty Nes...

If you've ever felt like you're walking around with a constant "hot flash" of overwhelm or wondered why your brain is always anticipating a threat, you might want to give this one a listen... This snippet is from the first time I sat down with the legend that is Heather Irvine Rundle from the Reed Clinic for a chat that gets incredibly personal. (I didn't see that coming!) We...

A couple of episodes ago, I started a feature of shining a light on a few Central Coast small businesses to prove that a big idea can come from anywhere (even a reality show about Mormons). Ash from Sandy Rose Designs reveals how she built a global swimwear brand from her bedroom at fifteen while hiding from high school bullies. We talk about the late-night letterbox drops to stay anonymous and th...