Waterpeople Podcast

Hayley Talbot is the first person to solo kayak the great Clarence River ( Boorimbah) from source to sea, a 400 kilometre voyage. She's a former competitive surfer and lawyer who found her home in fresh water.  In 2017, Hayley Talbot found herself mired in the monotony of raising two young children. She’d yearned to know more about the source of the Clarence River, where she’d grown up and su...

Culture shaper and former world Tour Surfer Derek Hynd has always felt like an outsider looking in. In Episode 8, he talks far field theory, seeing magic in the mundane, how style has been made irrelevant in modern competitive surfing and the impact of vanishing hipsters. He also boils down the gender performance gap to one singular element. It's a meandering conversation with many delightful...

Zara was kidnapped and imprisoned by the Iranian government for her activism. The ocean helped her find a path toward belonging after fleeing her homeland. Zara Noruzi was born an upper middle class girl with political subversion in her blood. She lived through the devastating war between Iraq and Iran. At university she wrote feminist articles and participated in student protests, begging for ans...

Peter Whish-Wilson walked away from a big shot banking career in NYC to honor a deep responsibility to protect wild spaces and species. He's now a surfing senator for the great, wild Australian state of Tasmania.  What do we do when we've made life choices that make us miserable? Listen as Peter Whish-Wilson shares about the moments that changed his life and livelihood, inspired by the f...

Freesurfer Leah Dawson peels back the layers and dares to ask: "What makes me feel most like myself?" and "How is my surfing an extension of that self?" There are many ways to be male, and many ways to be female. Though our culture is full of prescriptions for how to do it the “right” way. Leah Dawson thanks surfing for leading her along the path to honouring her femininity. Ex...

Legendary waterman Mark Healey lost three friends to heavy water situations through the course of the early 2000s. He speaks candidly about the ways these experiences rewired his process of risk assessment, while maintaining his relationship with the water and his career as a professional risk taker: chasing big waves, free diving, spearfishing, shark tagging, bow hunting, and working as a Hollywo...

At the height of her competitive spearfishing career, Kimi Werner began battling with inner demons that turned the once-solace of the ocean into a cacophony of self-criticism. Kimi’s is a story about attaining dreams, losing love, wrestling with dissatisfaction and, ultimately, finding love again in the deep.   Our conversation dives into reckoning with fear, flipping your instincts in heavy water...

Stories of triumph, challenge and the sea, brought to you live from Byron Bay Surf Festival. Listen as five brave waterfolk share their real and raw stories of overcoming or being overcome: finding surfing later in life, realising purpose after a life changing injury, living with cancer, searching for an unknown family member, wrestling with the death of a parent – and finding the dark humour.  Th...

On The Waterpeople Podcast, we're delving deep into the intricacies of how the world's most adept waterpeople make lives of great meaning through meaningful play. In this episode Lauren L. Hill and Dave Rastovich elucidate the the 'whys' of making the podcast, reveal about their highlights from Season One, and welcome you to their watery world.  ...  The Waterpeople Podcast is...