Roll With The Punches

This conversation hit a little differently.

Vicki Scott joined me to talk about slowing down, perspective, and what really changes when life punches you square in the face. After being diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, Vicki found herself navigating not just treatment, surgery, and survival, but the unexpected emotional aftermath that nobody really prepares you for.

We talked about the pressure we put on ourselves to achieve, prove, and keep pushing, even after something life altering. About identity, perfectionism, and the uncomfortable realisation that sometimes the hardest thing isn’t fighting, it’s learning how to stop striving and actually live.

Vicki shared what cancer taught her about toughness, legacy, community, and why being kind and genuinely supporting others matters more than titles, achievements, or ticking boxes. This is a conversation about resilience without the shiny Instagram version. The messy middle. The quiet aftermath. And the courage it takes to choose presence over proving.

 

SPONSORED BY TESTART FAMILY LAWYERS

Website: www.testartfamilylawyers.com.au 

TIFFANEE COOK

Linktree:  linktr.ee/rollwiththepunches

Website: tiffcook.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tania Khazaal works in the family estrangement space, and she came in hot with a message a lot of people will hate at first… but probably need to hear.

Is today’s therapy language and our feeds flooded with social media buzzwords creating the perfect permission slip to cut people off before we’ve actually learned how our nervous system works, how to communicate properly, or how to stop making everyone else the villain in our story?

Tania shared her own story of cutting off her mum 'in the name of healing', then realising resentment without a path forward is a dead end. We went deep into one of my favourite conversations, the nuance between fault and responsibility, rupture and repair, why 'boundaries' are being used like brick walls instead of self-respect, and how being triggered is often a sign there’s more healing to do.

We also unpacked the long game of rewiring patterns, how repair happens when you stop defending yourself and start listening, and when estrangement is actually necessary.

Basically, this episode is for anyone who wants better relationships, less emotional fragility, and more personal power, without pretending any of it is easy. For some, it’ll be a game-changer. For others, it might feel confronting. Either way, it’s an epic, honest conversation about tough dynamics most people avoid.

 

SPONSORED BY TESTART FAMILY LAWYERS

Website: www.testartfamilylawyers.com.au 

TANIA KHAZAAL

Website: taniakhazaal.com

TIFFANEE COOK

Linktree:  linktr.ee/rollwiththepunches

Website: tiffcook.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I booked this chat thinking I'd be talking to an animal behaviour expert. Turns out, I was basically signing up for a gentle but very accurate psychological assessment via my pets.

Mark Vette and I talked dogs, cats, bonding, anxiety, routine, over-attachment, and why our animals know us better than most humans ever will. We went deep into why dogs feel like family, how cats absolutely train us without apology, and how so many behaviour “problems” are really mirrors we don’t always want to look at.

All things puppies, rescues, trauma, separation stress, why some dogs melt down when you leave, why some cats feel like emotionally intelligent sociopaths, and how animals live way more in the present than we do. There was science, evolution, Buddhism, oxytocin, teenage dogs, Whippet anxiety, boot eating Staffies, and the humbling realisation that none of us are top of the hierarchy in our own homes. (well, I'm sure bloody well not...)

This was funny, grounding, and wildly reassuring if you’ve ever wondered whether your animal chose you, shaped you, or both. Spoiler... yes.

 

SPONSORED BY TESTART FAMILY LAWYERS

Website: www.testartfamilylawyers.com.au 

MARK VETTE

Website: dogzen.com/

TIFFANEE COOK

Linktree:  linktr.ee/rollwiththepunches

Website: tiffcook.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A hearty chat with Alison Bowen escalates quickly... I mean you can't escalate a whole lot more than the Mount Everest Summit, hey!?

Quite an understated lass, Alison has been in the midst of her Seven Summits journey, which started not with Everest glory, but with joining a Rover group, doing weekend hikes, getting curious, and slowly chipping away at bigger and higher mountains over nearly two decades. 

What I loved most about this chat was how unromanticised it was. This wasn’t about chasing adrenaline, making noise or proving anything. It was about curiosity, patience, commitment, and sticking with something long enough to see where it might take you. Even when that something eventually takes you to the highest bloody mountain on the planet. She's got two more to tick off the list this year and next... now she's opening the door for you to follow along, so go on get inspired!

Oh yeah… we also had a full tech meltdown mid-chat, which honestly felt on brand. Mountains are hard. Zoom is harder.

 

SPONSORED BY TESTART FAMILY LAWYERS

Website: www.testartfamilylawyers.com.au 

ALISON BOWEN

Instagram: @sevensummits_hyker   

TIFFANEE COOK

Linktree:  linktr.ee/rollwiththepunches

Website: tiffcook.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Righto, Tony Pearce is back. And yep, he’s still head down, tail up, doing wildly wholesome and mildly unhinged things in the name of mental health.

We rewound to Tony’s Trek in 2023, when he looked at the brutal reality of mental injury and suicide risk in emergency services and basically went, nah, we can’t just keep talking about this and doing nothing. So he walked 1500km through fire-affected parts of northeast and east Victoria and raised serious money for early intervention wellbeing programs. The kind that step in early, before someone’s “clinically diagnosed” and completely cooked.

Then came Everest Base Camp in 2024. Casual. And now in 2026 he’s cranking the dial again, paddling 2400km down the Murray over 50 days. That’s 45 to 50km a day, about seven hours on the water, every day, to raise awareness and another 50k for more residential wellbeing programs.

What I loved most was the honesty. No platitudes, no tidy endings. Just real talk about emergency service workers, mental health, and how much still slips through the cracks. Tony doesn’t sugarcoat it. Sometimes people don’t make it, even with love, purpose, and community around them. And that’s hard to sit with. But it’s exactly why early intervention matters, and why these conversations matter.

SPONSORED BY TESTART FAMILY LAWYERS

Website: www.testartfamilylawyers.com.au 

TONY PEARCE

Website: facebook.com

TIFFANEE COOK

Linktree:  linktr.ee/rollwiththepunches

Website: tiffcook.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This one is basically me and Harps doing what we do best. Taking the piss, accidentally saying something deeply meaningful, then laughing so it doesn’t get too serious.

We talked about goals, plans, and why ticking boxes doesn’t always fix how you feel. That weird moment where you get the thing you thought you wanted and realise it wasn’t the antidote. Identity, perceived value, and the stuff we chase without really checking the cost.

Then we went down a rabbit hole on perception. Same wine, different label, different brain response. Which is equal parts fascinating and mildly terrifying. Because it turns out we’re not just living our lives, we’re interpreting them.

The hill doesn’t change. We do. And apparently the solution is either adaptation… or a glass of wine.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicole Liddell is doing her PhD on coercive control, specifically how technology gets used to keep the control going even after someone leaves. And honestly, the examples are equal parts terrifying and ridiculously sneaky. Bank transfers with threats in the reference line. Smart home systems taken over remotely. A bloody robovac being used like a creepy little spy cam on wheels.

But the part that really landed was the human cost of researching this stuff when you’ve lived it. Nicole talks about going in 'eyes wide open', thinking she had it handled… then realising she didn’t. The immersion, the algorithms, the constant exposure, the nervous system never switching off. And then her body basically calling time on the whole thing.

From there, it turned into this really honest convo about hypervigilance, dating after dodgy history, rigidity, and learning to live in the messy middle instead of either fawning or fleeing. We talked self-respect, boundaries, communicating needs, and why 'fun' is not a cute extra, it’s medicine. And Nicole’s 2026 word is stewardship, which feels like the most grown-up, grounded way to say, I’m not sacrificing myself to the mission anymore. BOOM!!

 

SPONSORED BY TESTART FAMILY LAWYERS

Website: www.testartfamilylawyers.com.au 

TIFFANEE COOK

Linktree:  linktr.ee/rollwiththepunches

Website: tiffcook.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

'Big Dog' Jason Blyth is BACK! An origin story so massive I didn't even attempt to cover it all in our first chat in episode 967... In our second chat (as we dart off in multiple directions along the way) we essentially came together to talk about Jason's biological father... what it was like seeking him out and meeting him, and the way trauma can shape identity like a shadow you didn’t ask for. We talk forgiveness and launch into the hero’s journey stuff, choice points, the dark cave, the dragon, the moment where you either change or repeat the pattern until it eats you alive.

Jason is a weapon of a human and one I'm blessed to have met last year and call a friend.. you loved the first ep with him and I know you're gonna love this one too!

 

SPONSORED BY TESTART FAMILY LAWYERS

Website: www.testartfamilylawyers.com.au 

JASON BLYTH

Website: jasonblyth.com

TIFFANEE COOK

Linktree:  linktr.ee/rollwiththepunches

Website: tiffcook.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mick Harrington is back, aka the Mower Man, and honestly I could listen to that bloke sing the phone book and still get emotional. But this time round we are getting fired up on all things bushfires... Funding. Public land management. The gap between decisions made in Spring Street and the reality on the ground when your town is literally on fire. Mick talked about communities being left vulnerable, old trucks, not enough fuel reduction, not enough basic roadside slashing, and the mental toll that sits in people’s bodies for years after the flames are gone. And the part that hit hardest was the “doers” story. People being told “no resources, you’re on your own” and still saving farms, neighbours, and half a town with sheer grit, old gear, and guts.

 

SPONSORED BY TESTART FAMILY LAWYERS

Website: www.testartfamilylawyers.com.au 

TIFFANEE COOK

Linktree:  linktr.ee/rollwiththepunches

Website: tiffcook.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine what its like growing up in a religious cult... Cait managed to wriggle herself free from the Christian Patriarchy in her mid 20's... breaking free from a rigid belief system and an emotionally abusive father.. Cait was homeschooled, isolated, taught that obedience was love and silence was safety. No choices. No agency. No room for anger, desire, or even curiosity.

We talked about courtship instead of dating, emotional purity instead of emotional literacy, and what it does to a person when their inner voice is systematically shut down. We went into leaving family, losing community, rebuilding identity from scratch, and learning how to feel again without apologising for it. Trauma, therapy, trust, boundaries, anger, grief, and the slow reclamation of self all showed up.

I loved this conversation around how our upbringing and environments in childhood shapes who we are and how we function as grown-ups.Cait is one hell of a brave human in my opinion... she didn't agree with that label for herself, which in itself was an interesting part of the conversation.

SPONSORED BY TESTART FAMILY LAWYERS

Website: www.testartfamilylawyers.com.au 

TIFFANEE COOK

Linktree:  linktr.ee/rollwiththepunches

Website: tiffcook.com

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.