Podvan Podcast with Rabbit

In this sprawling, hilarious, and surprisingly moving conversation, I catch up with a long-time mate from Adelaide radio days who (in her new job) has learned to castrate goats, keep bees, run three massive fundraising gala balls, and personally escort a fugitive through Cambodia - all while never missing a single sports day for her kids.

The story is awesome. 10 years ago, our mate Cosi started a TV show from the dining room table ...

What happens when a Canadian psychologist becomes a high school teacher on the Central Coast and decides her Year 9 students need to see the world?

That's Brenda's story, and it's the kind of thing that makes you wonder why more people aren't doing this. (I reckon you'll love this episode!)

Brenda's been organising community give-back trips for her students – building houses with Habitat for Humanity in Cambo...

Julie Goodwin walked into Donut King, ordered a coffee and two cinnamon donuts, and was immediately offended.

This story is soooo funny!

In today's episode, we get into blood tests, sleep deprivation, and the utter chaos of watching a five-year-old play soccer - while totally distracted by something way more interesting...

Julie also shares something genuinely useful about how she tests her recipes, and what happens when you put...

What do a teenager with swimming goggles, a half-eaten Nutella cruffin, and a 20yr old x-ray result all have in common?

They all turned up in one conversation with my daughter Tiana, and every single one of them broke my brain a little.

Have you seen any kids wandering around shopping centres with swimming goggles around their necks? We can explain it! We also talk about a kinda secret (and awesome) thing that Baker's Delight do, do...

This one starts with a warning… and a story that sounds like it belongs in a crime scene, not a bathroom.

Kyla from Cakes By Kyla jumps back into the van, and within minutes we’re talking about the recent moment she blacked out, hit the floor, and woke up surrounded by blood with no idea how she got there. It’s hectic, a bit scary, and somehow still very Kyla. But underneath that story is something a lot of us will recognise… runnin...

If your kid has ever picked up a clarinet… there’s a fair chance this bloke had something to do with it.

Rowan McBride joins me in the van, and if you grew up on the Central Coast, you probably already know his name. He’s been running school band programs for over 20 years, shaping thousands of young musicians and watching everything from first-day squeaks to full-blown “that was the best thing I’ve ever done” moments on stage.

We g...

I asked for driving stories… and got everything from written-off cars to someone literally driving into a fridge.

This one’s a bit different. You’ll hear from Leanne, Karen, Britney, Katrina and Harrison as I jump on the phone and collect some absolute ripper stories about getting your Ls, Ps and everything that can go wrong in between.

It all started with my daughter getting her Ls and our first driving lesson together which, hones...

I did not expect to be talking about sexy cockroaches today… but here we are.

This week, I'm joined by the absolutely brilliant Ed and Amanda from the Not Quite Right podcast, and we get into some pretty wild territory! They're here to chat about their latest project, "Flesh Fiction" – a writing competition and now a book that challenged authors to make the unsexy, utterly irresistible.

We're talking about the i...

Up for a laugh?

Julie is back in the podvan, and things go off the rails almost immediately.

What starts as a nice catch-up quickly turns into a deeply important discussion about gyrocopters, and why calling a stranger on Easter Saturday about flying one over the Central Coast feels totally reasonable. Along the way, we get into the viral Gosford waterfront video, suspicious urns found under the house, and the kind of nonsense that o...

I finally made it to the Principal’s office without copping a suspension!

I sat down with Murray Balfe, the man at the helm of Lisarow High School, to find out what life is really like on the other side of the desk. We get into the nitty-gritty of the mobile phone ban, how AI is actually being used in the classroom, and the surprising reason why some of the biggest "dropouts" can end up being the most successful people in ...

In this Quick Fix episode (a shorter bit from a full episode from a couple of years ago!) I'm hitting the pavement with Adam from Ruksak for a proper walk and talk. Adam opens up about his "decade of destruction" where business success came at the cost of a 16.3 cholesterol level and a shock cancer diagnosis. We chat about the reality of being a "health hacker," the struggle of managing fitness while medicat...

Natalie King is a Clinical Psychologist who has spent the last decade specialising exclusively in couples therapy, and she joins me to pull apart why we react the way we do when things get heated.

We explore the "Pursuer-Withdrawal" dynamic (when one person needs to talk it out right now while the other needs to walk away) and how our childhood "stuff" is usually the invisible hand at play. Natalie explains why f...

Tam and Kathy have a couple of cracking stories about those mortifying moments when your kids repeat something they definitely shouldn't have. We hear about a three year old who learned the entire, very adult vocabulary of a certain song, and a little boy who chose the worst moment at a checkout to quote a movie line to a stranger! It is a hilarious reminder that little ears are always listening, and no matter how much you apol...

We first met Mel Bean a few weeks back during our side hustle chat, but I knew the second we started talking that she had a much bigger story to tell. Today, Mel shares her incredible journey through a Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis and why she made the brave, personal choice to follow her intuition when it came to her treatment.

Mel is the founder of In Harmony Qigong on the Central Coast, and she explains how this ancient practic...

Julie drops by the Podvan to talk up the joys of op shopping and why her whole family keeps bumping into each other at Vinnies (including some very questionable smelling coats - which is VERY funny!)

Plus, I share the brilliant story of how T-Pain pulled off the ultimate 30th birthday surprise for Meghan Trainor, and Jessica joins us to explain how her dad became a master of misdirection by hacking into bank accounts and landing he...

This is one of my favourite episodes ever!

Jason Van Genderen is a world-class storyteller who started a revolution when he ended up on the big stage in New York City - winning one of the world's most prestigious short film festivals with a device most people only used for Snake!

Beyond the bright lights of New York, Jason shares incredible stories from his recent trip to Kenya - including why he was hiding in a shipping contai...

In this Quick Fix episode I catch up with two of our legends from the Podvan community, Tara and Kylie, to hear about the incredible friendships they sparked while holidaying.

We get into the story of a 22 year friendship that started on a Sydney jetboat, a solo mission to Rome that resulted in a lifelong travel buddy, and the reason why Kylie actually prefers a rocky cruise ship over a smooth one.

If you enjoyed this Quick Fix and ...

Natalie and I are getting into the nitty-gritty of why so many couples hit a wall once the kids finally pack their bags...

It’s a weird, quiet transition where the three or four-bedroom house suddenly feels way too big and you realise you haven’t actually had a real conversation with the person across the table in years.

Natalie King from The READ Clinic joins me in the van to talk about Empty Nester Syndrome and why it often crash...

If you've ever felt like you're walking around with a constant "hot flash" of overwhelm or wondered why your brain is always anticipating a threat, you might want to give this one a listen...

This snippet is from the first time I sat down with the legend that is Heather Irvine Rundle from the Reed Clinic for a chat that gets incredibly personal. (I didn't see that coming!)

We talk about the invisible weight of a...