Baskets Of Knowledge

What happens when you’ve lived a life that looks right on paper… but feels misaligned in your body?

In this powerful episode of Baskets of Knowledge, Dr Manmeet Rattu (Dr Mini) shares her journey from growing up in a deeply loving cultural family, entering an arranged marriage, and navigating its breakdown, to rediscovering herself through strength training, a bikini bodybuilding competition, and ultimately the science of yoga.

This conversation explores:

• Identity and cultural expectations
• Listening to your body vs overriding your intuition
• Trauma, survival mode, and nervous system dysregulation
• The psychology of self-honouring
• The neuroscience and science-backed benefits of yoga
• How strength training and embodiment rebuild self-trust

Dr Mini bridges lived experience with evidence-based insight, explaining how yoga is not just a practice, but a science of nervous system regulation, trauma healing, and emotional resilience.

If you’re interested in mindset transformation, identity work, personal growth, trauma recovery, or the science of yoga, this episode will stay with you.

🎙️ Listen now on Spotify.
🔔 Follow Baskets of Knowledge for more conversations on mindset, identity, and human transformation.

What happens when a young person refuses to accept broken systems as “just the way things are”?

In this episode of Baskets of Knowledge, we sit down with Kenisha Mediratta, founder of REdefine Aotearoa, to explore creating support systems, navigating change, and leading through lived experience.

Kenisha shares her journey from growing up in West Auckland public schools to founding a youth-led platform addressing systemic racism and youth mental health. We unpack how anger in young people is often misunderstood, why access and opportunity matter more than punishment, and how real change happens when communities are empowered, not silenced.

This conversation goes beyond inspiration.
It’s about systems, leadership, health, and the courage to ask for help.

🎧 If you care about:
• Youth leadership and advocacy
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Anti-racism and systemic change
• Building sustainable support systems

This episode will stay with you.

🔔 Listen now on Spotify and add this insight to your Basket of Knowledge.

What happens when doing “everything right” still doesn’t feel right?

In this episode of Baskets of Knowledge, we sit down with Ritu Saxena, founder of Project UpgradeHer, to explore what confidence really looks like when it’s built, not inherited.

Born and raised in Mumbai, Ritu became a Chartered Accountant and moved to New Zealand to experiment with independence and live on her own terms. On paper, she was successful. Internally, she struggled with imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and feeling invisible in environments she was fully qualified to be in.

Moving countries didn’t fix that, it amplified it.

Ritu shares the loneliness of starting over, the cultural shock of navigating systems that reward confidence but never teach it, and the breaking point that forced her to confront a hard truth: effort alone isn’t enough if you don’t advocate for yourself.

That moment led her into therapy, coaching, and deep inner work, transforming not just her career, but her relationship with herself. Today, she’s recognised as one of the Top 20 Chartered Accountants and empowers women of colour to build clarity, confidence, and income through Project UpgradeHer.

This is a powerful conversation about identity, belonging, courage, and what happens when you finally choose yourself.

🎧 Listen now and add this conversation to your basket of knowledge.

What if the thing you rely on for productivity is actually working against you?

In this episode of Baskets of Knowledge, we sit down with Amber Scott, a fourth-year law student and the founder of PIQ, to explore how personal frustration with caffeine, chronic fatigue, and burnout turned into a science-backed solution for focus and energy.

Amber shares her journey of building PIQ while studying law, navigating imposter syndrome, researching neuroscience and caffeine, and learning what it really takes to turn an idea into a physical product. This is a very real conversation about curiosity, failure, values, and choosing depth over noise, especially as a young founder.

If you’ve ever questioned your energy levels, your direction, or whether you’re “doing life right,” this episode will resonate deeply.

🎧 Listen now to discover how turning frustration into focus can change the way you work, build, and live.

What does it mean to belong,  to a place, a people, and yourself?

In this episode of Baskets of Knowledge, we speak with Rinad Tamimi, a Palestinian woman who grew up in Al-Khalil (Hebron) and moved to New Zealand at 13. Rinad shares her lived experience of migration, identity, racism, motherhood, and returning home after nine years away.

This is a conversation about Palestine beyond the headlines, about gratitude and grief existing side by side, and about the responsibility of using your voice when you can. Rinad also reflects on her podcast The Watermelon Report and why storytelling is a form of service.

A deeply human conversation that invites reflection, empathy, and perspective.

What does real leadership look like at 19?

In this episode of Baskets of Knowledge, we sit down with Mackenzie, a student at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. She is a youth advocate who is quietly reshaping what leadership, empathy, and impact truly mean.

This conversation explores people-first leadership, the power of reflection, and why real change doesn’t come from titles, it comes from showing up for others.

Mackenzie shares her lived experience working in youth advocacy within a fast-growing rural district, navigating leadership at a young age, and becoming one of only 37 people globally to receive the Zonta International Young Women in Leadership Scholarship.

We dive deep into:

• Leadership driven by empathy, not ego

• Youth voice, advocacy, and community change

• Mental health and social media, the good, the bad, and the dangerous

• Online hate, clickbait media, and resilience

• Grief, loss, and continuing to show up when life is heavy

• Why banning social media won’t solve the problem, conversation will

• The importance of reflection and enjoying the process of becoming

This episode is for leaders, parents, educators, coaches, and anyone who believes leadership starts with humanity.

🎧 Listen now and add this conversation to your basket of knowledge.

What happens when the life you worked so hard for… no longer feels like your life?

In this powerful episode, we sit down with Mina Amso, founder of Notes from the Executive, to explore identity, reinvention, cultural expectations, courage, and the moment you finally choose alignment over approval.

We dive into:
• Career pivots & following your purpose
• Breaking away from family expectations
• How to find your voice and use it with impact
• Why values are the most important part of your story
• How to build a life that feels true, not safe

If you’re feeling misaligned, stuck, or ready for a new chapter, this conversation will speak directly to you.

In this episode of Baskets of Knowledge, we sit down with 18-year-old Adam and 17-year-old Alfie, the young entrepreneurs behind ZenSha, New Zealand’s first matcha protein brand.

They share how they turned a classroom idea into a fast-growing health and wellness business, how they built their startup while still in school, and why consistency and action are the keys to success.

Perfect for listeners who enjoy:

🔹 Entrepreneurship podcasts
🔹 NZ startup stories
🔹 Gen Z founders
🔹 Health and wellness brands
🔹 Matcha culture & protein supplements
🔹 Real conversations about building a business

Stream now on Spotify and learn how two teenagers are reshaping the NZ wellness industry.

In this powerful episode of Baskets of Knowledge, we sit down with Malaysian mountaineer and environmental educator Saravanan Sinniah, a man whose life changed the moment he fulfilled his childhood dream of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro… and discovered the heartbreaking reality of climate change with his own eyes.

From witnessing melting glaciers to leading young people through forests and ecosystems across Southeast Asia, Saravanan shares raw stories about purpose, leadership, awareness, and the importance of travelling the world, or at least your own backyard, to expand who you are.

We explore:
• The shrinking snowcaps of Kilimanjaro
• The shocking changes at Everest Base Camp
• What climate change really looks like on the ground
• Life-threatening moments in the wild (including tigers)
• How to lead by walking beside people, not in front
• Why young people might be the key to saving our future
• Awareness vs willingness, and why both matter
• The life lessons nature teaches us when we pay attention

If you’re craving perspective, purpose, or a deeper connection to the world around you, this conversation will stay with you long after you listen.

Listen now and put something powerful into your Basket of Knowledge.

In this episode of Baskets of Knowledge, Kristin Murray, a leader with 30 years of experience, has a real, unscripted moment of imposter syndrome right at the start of the interview. What follows is one of the most honest conversations we’ve ever recorded.

Kristin opens up about navigating self-doubt, owning feedback, finding her voice, and discovering the framework that changed everything for her:
Evidence → Confidence → Action → More Evidence.

If you’re working on your mindset, leadership skills, personal growth, or career confidence, this episode will resonate deeply.