Best Samoan Addict Podcasts (2025)

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Wellbeing champion Tim Mehrtens: Why I'm grateful for even the worst things that happened to me 34:42

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7d ago34:42

34:42

Tim Mehrtens is passionate about helping people thrive - but that passion was born from his darkest moments. After experiencing severe trauma in 2012, Tim spiralled into PTSD and multiple suicide attempts, before facing the brutal reality that suppressing emotions had nearly killed him. Today, Tim directs My Everyday Wellbeing, helping people to de…

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Kayla Schwalger: How Samoan culture became my mental health medicine 29:30

14d ago29:30

29:30

Growing up between two worlds, Kayla Schwalger felt disconnected from her Samoan heritage while trying to succeed in New Zealand - a struggle many second-generation Pacific Islanders know well. Moving to Samoa at 14 helped, but it also brought challenges including undiagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder in a culture where mental health often wa…

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Tui Taurua: How I used traditional Māori healing to get off countless psychiatric medications 36:09

21d ago36:09

36:09

Tui Taurua calls herself a "mental health warrior" - and after her journey, she's earned that title. From 1977 to 2001, she spent over two decades cycling in and out of psychiatric hospitals, hearing voices that doctors called "hallucinations" and taking up to 25 medications a day that left her sedated on the couch, watching life pass her by. When …

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Chris Ranui-Molloy: Recovering from addiction using drama therapy 38:08

28d ago38:08

38:08

Chris Ranui-Molloy's journey from a declining Bay of Plenty logging town to founding Recovery Street is a story of transformation through the most unlikely medium - theatre. Growing up with a 'FTW mentality' in Murupara, Chris nearly ended up in gang life before heading to drama school in Auckland where isolation, depression, and addiction left him…

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Rhonda Hāpi-Smith: Surviving 20 years as a female prison officer 37:15

1M ago37:15

37:15

Rhonda Hāpi-Smith describes her career as a female prison officer in New Zealand as "wonderful, devastating, fantastic and heartbreaking" - and those contradictions tell the whole story. For 20 years, she walked among dangerous criminals at Rimutaka and Hawkes Bay men's prisons, loving the brotherhood, the resilience she witnessed, and the humour t…

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Teen leader Lola Fisher: How to give young people a voice 28:37

1M ago28:37

28:37

At 17, Lola Fisher is living proof that young people don't need to wait their turn to lead. What started as COVID lockdown boredom became her vision for Create Happy Media - a youth-led platform reaching 30,000+ readers after Lola discovered how negatively young people were portrayed in headlines. This conversation reveals what it's really like bei…

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Lisa McDonald & Veronica Shale: Why we're giving up alcohol 26:50

2M ago26:50

26:50

This July, thousands of New Zealanders will go alcohol-free for Dry July - but for breast cancer survivor Lisa McDonald, the cause is deeply personal. After facing aggressive treatment including bilateral mastectomy and chemotherapy, Lisa experienced firsthand how the Dry July-funded support services like "Look Good Feel Better" made her feel "a mi…

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Grace Curtis: How to find hope after suicide grief 31:29

2M ago31:29

31:29

In 2020, Grace Curtis faced an unimaginable tragedy when she discovered her father's body after he died by suicide, and had to break the devastating news to her family. What followed was a long period of being bedridden with depression, convinced she would never feel peace again. Five years later, Grace has transformed her darkest experience into a…

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Trailer 1:01

2M ago1:01

1:01

Take It From Us is back. What started as an award-winning community radio show is now something bigger. Host Kent Johns is still here with his same mix of straight talk and warmth, just in a brand-new podcast format. Take It From Us is still about talking to real people about what it's actually like to live through the hard stuff - like addiction, …