We’ve had the pleasure of welcoming several current and former politicians to the Life’s Work studio this year, all with their own fascinating stories to tell, from how they got into politics, to their aspirations, achievements, downsides, and even the odd comment about friends and opposition faced over the years. We’ve pulled together some of our favourite moments from conversations with Todd Muller, Angie Warren-Clark, Anne Tolley, and Bob Clarkson. These aren’t political interviews, we’re not putting anyone on the spot and trying to catch people out. What we wanted to achieve was to get to know the people who put themselves forward as public servants, whatever side of the political divide they fall. Like them or not, agree with them or not, we think they’ve all lived a life that’s a story worth retelling, and we hope you enjoy these highlights and check out the full episodes, available wherever you listen to your podcasts, and on our channel here:

Todd Muller – https://youtu.be/md549ylPqrQ

Anglie Warren-Clark – https://youtu.be/Ldl9tPttQlg

Anne Tolley – https://youtu.be/fbJK4KrmxIw

Bob Clarkson – https://youtu.be/ZBHlpMYQEFc

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Eve Kelly is a talented performer hailing from Whakatāne, New Zealand. Her passion for singing and performing began early on, as she immersed herself in Musical Theatre, participating in nationwide singing competitions, and amazing audiences with her vocal talents at weddings, fundraisers, and celebrations. 

Following school, Eve embarked on a journey of exploration, travelling both within New Zealand and internationally to further her career. Her journey took an exciting turn when she secured a coveted position as a production vocalist with Princess Cruise Lines. This opportunity allowed her to combine her love for travel with her passion for performing, all whilst getting paid for doing what she loved. 

However, fate had other plans, as Covid-19 eventually forced her to return to her hometown. Undeterred, Eve's love for performing continued to fuel her ambitions, and she found herself fortunate enough to join the nationwide ABBA Tribute tour. 

Ever-evolving as an artist, Eve has recently delved into the world of songwriting, exploring new avenues for creative expression. Her 2022 debut release, “Gotta Let Go”, has been followed by two further singles, “Dance With Me” and “Mr Big Shot”, and has opened up a future of endless possibilities as a singer songwriter. 

The title of this episode is a quote from Eve herself. Whilst Eve has always had great musical talent and goals, the path she has taken so far has been very much about taking opportunities that present themselves, without having each step to her goals mapped out in detail. This has helped Eve to overcome setbacks and not get too thrown when challenges happen, but rather regroup and take advantage of the next opportunity to come along. 

Eve was an energetic delight to speak to, and will undoubtedly go far. 

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Harry Oram is a multi-talented individual, with a burgeoning career as an actor, writer, and director. A 5th generation New Zealander, born in Hong Kong with a Filipina mother, Harry has a unique perspective on storytelling and the power of multicultural narratives. 

Harry's journey in the arts began at an early age, starting as a ballet dancer before finding his voice as a choral scholar. His passion for acting and performance led him to pursue a degree in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh. While there, he secured his first professional acting gig at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, marking the beginning of a successful career. 

To further hone his craft, Harry ventured to the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York, where he immersed himself in acting and also explored his interest in filmmaking. Eventually, he settled in Los Angeles, building connections and studying screenwriting under the guidance of John Truby. 

Harry made his way back to his family in Asia, where he became part of a vibrant independent film scene. Inspired to support and celebrate multicultural stories, he founded Third Culture magazine, Third Culture Theatricals, and the Third Culture Film Festival. The term "Third Culture" holds great significance for Harry, representing individuals who grow up in cultures different from their parents' and experience a rich tapestry of influences. 

Now residing in Tauranga, New Zealand, Harry has dedicated himself to sharing his knowledge and contributing to the local community. He founded the Apex Academy of Performing Arts, fostering creativity and talent among students. Additionally, he established MHO Endeavours, a boutique talent management company representing select clients. 

In this episode, we had a candid conversation with Harry about the challenges faced by actors like himself who don't fit neatly into predefined racial categories. We explored the issue of diversity and representation in the entertainment industry, highlighting the perceived double standards that exist. Harry emphasised the importance of connecting on a deeper level beyond surface appearances, urging society to move away from rigid criteria and embrace the true essence of art. 

We also touched on the topic of freedom of speech, delving into the complexities of navigating politically correct environments while still encouraging open dialogue and the exchange of diverse opinions. Harry's insights shed light on the need for balance in this ever-evolving landscape. 

Throughout our discussion, Harry's passion and energy shone through, reminding us of the youthful enthusiasm and untapped potential within the younger generation. We explored the role of older generations in nurturing and supporting the aspirations of the youth, rather than dismissing their ideas as naive. Harry's story serves as a reminder to embrace creativity, remain engaged in the community, and foster an environment where everyone's voice is heard. 

Harry’s creative background, combined with his entrepreneurial mindset, and passion for making a difference, ensures there’s something for everyone in this podcast episode. 

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In this episode Steve talks with rising star, actor Connor, who has already had significant successes in his career working with the likes of Lucy Lawless and starring in the feature film ‘Punch’ with BAFTA winning and Golden Globe and Academy nominated actor and producer, Tim Roth. 

Connor was late to acting, relatively speaking, as he was on track for a career in finance, or as a professional basketball player! He only found acting while at University when he auditioned for a role in a short movie created by fellow Uni students. Having made good friends with the team behind the camera, they all ended up moving in together as flat mates, which created the opportunity for Connor to appear more movies. This gave him great insight into the movie making industry and what it would be like to live life as an actor. He finished his degree, but then jumped with both feet into acting and isn’t looking back, already having obtained roles in many short movies, commercials, a number of web series, several TV series and a feature film. Connor provides some insight as to how to get into acting and the level of commitment needed to make it in an extremely competitive industry.  

Connor could be forgiven if his continuing success had gone to his head, but in this conversation, we see that this young man not only has a mature head on his shoulders, he is humble and gracious, caring and kind. He is naturally empathetic, learning from his experiences earlier in life when he was bullied, about how people can make each other feel, and he’s used that, along with his learning from acting, to ensure that he has a positive impact on those he comes into contact with. He also shares with us some of his challenges, including learning to control his obsessive-compulsive disorder, an area of his life he hasn’t spoken about outside of his family.  

This is a fascinating story, and we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. 

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In this episode I talk with Chloe Wright, Co-Founder and unremunerated CEO of the Wright Family Foundation. The Foundation provides funds and assistance to improve the educational, emotional, and psychological wellbeing of New Zealanders and supports more than 25 projects and organisations across the country enabling people to reach their full potential. 

Chloe received the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2021 for services to philanthropy, education, and health. Although Chloe doesn’t need to work, she chooses to do so, because she has a passion for making a difference, and that she is clearly doing. 

In addition to leading the Foundation, Chloe is Founder and Director of Birthing Centre, which offers extensive postnatal support in several locations across the country. She co-founded BestStart Educare, New Zealand’s largest early learning education organisation, with 300 centres looking after over 20,000 children. Chloe is the Patron of SuperGrans Aotearoa and WriteMark Plain English Awards Trust, Kids’ Lit Quiz, and the New Zealand Spelling Bee. She is also the Founder and Architect of Mothers Matter, which seeks to achieve for women what is rightfully theirs, excellent perinatal and postnatal care, and the ongoing support they need to thrive after giving birth.   

In this episode, Chloe talks candidly about how we should be investing more into support for mums and their newborn children, as “the first 1000 days are the most important”. She believes that whatever start a child has shapes their future as well as that of our society, so we need them to have what they need to thrive. Chloe’s own experiences of childhood, being the youngest of nine children, and having five of her own children, gave her what she feels was the best start in life, and she wants to see that for every child. When Chloe and her husband returned to New Zealand, after doing extremely well overseas, they wanted to use what resources they had to make a difference. Chloe had a dream of doing so in Africa but, once back in New Zealand, she realised that there was much work to be done here. Chloe has worked hard to understand the problem and has seen some of the terrible situations children are being brought up in, and wants to help change that through positive engagement and education. 

Almost all of what Chloe is involved in centres around the start of life, from advocating for improved maternity care through her birthing centres and Mothers Matter forum, to early childhood education through BestStart, and then supporting the wider family as Patron of SuperGrans. 

In this interview Chloe demonstrates the attributes of a great leader, someone who can and does make things happen. Chloe cares and, because she cares, she takes time to become aware of what’s needed and where. 

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International singer, songwriter, and recording artist, Georgia Lines, is the latest guest to appear on our Life’s Work podcast. Born and raised in Tauranga, New Zealand, Georgia has been carving a place for herself in the music scene for ten years, regularly selling out shows and captivating audiences with her powerful, soulful, warm voice. Georgia’s releases have garnered over three million Spotify streams, and she has regularly featured in the Official NZ Chart, reaching number one on the Album and Airplay Charts. Georgia’s music videos have been played on MTV AU/NZ, and she has been a featured artist on radio and in magazines. Georgia won Breakthrough Artist at the 2022 New Zealand Music Awards, was nominated for Best Pop Artist alongside Lorde and Benee, and has performed in front of 50,000 people at Eden Park. 

Georgia’s burgeoning success has not gone to her head, and a decade in the music business has not dampened her enthusiasm and spirit. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Georgia is the type of person who goes out of her way to notice the details and remember names and faces, which is no small feat in any line of work, especially one where new people come and go on a daily basis and no two days are the same. Georgia still fondly remembers her childhood t-shirt selling business, and this “customer service” mindset clearly helps her to be the generous, kind person she is today. 

Having recently signed with Coldplay’s US agent, there’s no telling how far Georgia’s career will take her. Yet even with such an exciting development, Georgia remains grounded and determined, with a “how can I?” attitude, not content with sitting back and waiting for things to happen, she keeps working away at her craft, realising that her success will come down to the work she puts in. She also knows how important it is to be bolstered by the small, close team of people she has around her, and she has carefully chosen those who will lift her up but also challenge her to reach the heights she wants to. 

With the release of new music, creative visuals, and a line-up of stand-out shows, Georgia Lines is a shining Aotearoa talent who is continually making an impact. She is also an absolute joy to talk to, with much wisdom to share that’s relevant no matter your workplace or personal situation. We hope you find this episode as rewarding as we did. 

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According to the World Health Organisation, mental health conditions are increasing worldwide. There was a 13% rise in mental health conditions and substance use disorders in the decade to 2017. Mental health conditions now cause 1 in 5 years lived with disability, depression being one of the leading causes. Around 20% of children and adolescents have a mental health condition, with suicide the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds. Mental health conditions can have a substantial effect on all areas of life, such as school or work performance, relationships with family and friends and ability to participate in the community. People with severe mental health conditions die prematurely – as much as two decades early – due to preventable physical conditions.

For this reason, it’s important to raise awareness of these matters, to promote conversations and help instigate interventions that can help.

Almost everybody at some point in their life will experience some kind of impact on their mental health and wellbeing. Whether that’s through personal trauma, the loss of a loved one, work related stress, illness, or in so many other ways. Although this is often temporary for many, there can be ongoing issues such as the fear of such episodes coming back under similar circumstances.

In this episode, we provide a compilation of clips from some of our interviews with guests who have shared with us their experiences with mental health and wellbeing issues. From working to live a full, adventurous life of achievement having been a double amputee since the age of nine, like Tony Christiansen, or having a very public ‘meltdown’ as MP Todd Muller described it when he took on the job of ‘Leader of the Opposition’ in the New Zealand Parliament, through to dealing with depression and anxiety as award winning author Lee Murray has, or being diagnosed with multiple disorders on the Autism Spectrum, like up and coming star, singer and song writer Sophie Maude.

We hope that these clips provide some insight as to the impact these matters have had on the lives of some of our guests, who have managed to work through or embrace their challenges to continue living positive and successful lives.

For more information from each guest, view their whole episodes on our channel.

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In this interview Steve talks with Dr. Stacy Sims, a forward-thinking, innovative international exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist who is revolutionising exercise nutrition and performance for women.  

Stacy has directed research programmes at Stanford, AUT University, and the University of Waikato, focusing on female athlete health and performance. 

During her tenure at Stanford, she had the opportunity to translate earlier research into consumer products and a science-based layperson's book (“ROAR”) written to explain sex differences in training and nutrition. Both the consumer products and the book challenged the existing dogma for women in exercise, nutrition, and health, and “ROAR” was ground-breaking in approaching the topics through a female lens, rather than the traditional male perspective. This paradigm shift is the focus of her famous and well-received "Women Are Not Small Men” TEDx talk.  

Her contributions to the international research environment and the sports nutrition industry have established a new niche in sports nutrition and established her reputation as the expert in sex differences in training, nutrition, and health. Stacy has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers, several books, and is a regularly featured speaker at professional and academic conferences, including those by the USA Olympic Committee and USA Cycling.   

In this interview, Stacy shares her Life’s Work story with us, which includes how she grew up feeling like an outsider, moving from place to place due to her father’s career in the armed forces. Instead of this negatively impacting her development, Stacy took the opportunity to learn and understand different cultures, seeing the world from different perspectives. It was this ability, and willingness, that led to her becoming a researcher in a field she now dominates as a world leading expert.  

As a person who never seems to slow down, and at a time when Stacy was balancing lecturing, being an athlete herself, and working with athletes, opportunities kept on coming that she readily accepted because, in her words, “it’s all about trying to help people get better at what they’re doing.” 

Part of the help that Stacy is providing today, as she talks about, is trying to drive the discussion of traditionally taboo subjects such as the menstrual cycle and menopause, how significant the impact can be on a woman’s career and relationships, and how important it is to normalise the attitudes towards them in society. 

Stacy also shares some of the experiences she had along the way which not only demonstrated her resilience, but also the need for her to speak up and fight for what she believes in, with an attitude that ‘the idea of the outcome can supersede the fear’. 

Stacy also has her own business (www.drstacysims.com) where she creates and delivers online learning material focused on women training with their physiology across the lifespan. 

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Nic Gill (Gilly) is a professional performance coach and consultant with huge expertise in sporting performance and health. He is best known for his work in rugby with 23 years working in the sport and, for the last 16 years, Gilly has been the strength and conditioning coach for the New Zealand All Blacks. This has been a period of unprecedented success for the All Blacks, which has included more than 170 rugby test wins and the World Cup title in 2011 and 2015. Gilly has been integral in these achievements, as one of only a few constants in the All Blacks over that time.

In this candid interview, Gilly provides us with some fantastic insights into how the All Blacks work as an organisation. He discusses culture, work ethic, attitude, and how important it is to have a leadership approach of ‘high challenge and high support’ when it comes to helping people perform at their best.

As an Associate Professor in Human Performance at the University of Waikato, Gilly is always refining and evolving his philosophy for being fit and healthy and having the 'winning edge' in life and in competition. This demonstrates how, as a leader, he is constantly learning and growing, in order to grow more leaders. 

In our discussion, Gilly shares with us his journey from growing up wanting to be a police officer and being convinced otherwise by a career advisor at school, through to how his attitude, work ethic, and sheer hard work provided him with the opportunity of a lifetime, working for the All Blacks. He also shares how he gave up that job, despite everybody advising against it. At that time the culture of the All Blacks didn’t sit well with him and he wanted to do the best thing for his family. Putting family first was clearly the right thing for Gilly, and just a few years later, when the time was right, he returned to the All Blacks and embarked upon a long and illustrious career with them.

For anyone interested in health, fitness, high performance sport, leadership, work and organisational culture, or just wanting to understand why the All Blacks are so good, this is a must see interview.

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Mira Corbova is an artist first and foremost, as well as being an art gallery owner working with many artists. Mira grew up in Slovakia (then part of a Communist Czechoslovakia) with many restrictions and in a strict household with little room for self-expression. As a very young child, with a physically and emotionally abusive father, she found solace in art and nature, a place to escape. At the age of eleven, her teacher, who obviously saw her potential as an artist, put her work into an international competition, and she won. Her passion for creativity, combined with the knowledge that she had some talent, led to a lifelong passion for Mira.

After moving to England to study and start afresh, she met her partner and moved back to his homeland, New Zealand, where Mira found the inspiration to live her dream and open her own art gallery.

In this episode, Mira talks about her childhood and the life that shaped who she has become, as well as her passion, art. She feels that creating art is an expressive means to channel energy with positive emotions that reflect a higher vision within. She believes in the healing power of art, so much so, she delivers art therapy workshops. Mira describes her art as an emotional conversation through colour and shape, a tangible expression of her soul. Her aim as an artist and art dealer is to inspire, encourage, and connect everyone through creativity, and to help people to realise the immense value and importance of art.

In this open and heartfelt episode, we hear the story of a little girl, who missed out on on a typical childhood, growing up in a strict environment and having to look after her family, but found an escape in the colourful world of art.

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