Stretton Unfiltered

For more than thirty years, human rights lawyer Sonja Cooper has stood beside survivors of abuse in state and psychiatric care, people whose stories were ignored for decades.

In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, Sonja and Annah explore what happens when the very institutions meant to protect children become the source of lifelong trauma.

Together they discuss the fight for justice, the reality of redress, why so many survivors wer...

Curiosity doesn't come with an expiry date, but somewhere along the way, a lot of us stop giving ourselves permission to try something new. This is a conversation about staying curious, at any age, and why getting older doesn't mean getting stuck.

In this Stretton Unfiltered short, Annah sit's down with Rose, senior manager of the Wellington Annah Stretton store. Nineteen years into a career spent watching women change their mi...

One phone call changed everything. Cushla Reed's overseas factory had been seized overnight. Her stock, her equipment, her patterns, years of work, all suddenly locked behind someone else's doors.

That single moment is the centre of this conversation, but it's not really the story. The real story is what Cushla lost on the way to building one of New Zealand's most recognised footwear brands, and what she chose to hold onto anyway.

Ov...

One phone call changed everything.

Annah thought her biggest wholesale customer wanted a catch-up. Instead, they ended the relationship, leaving her with a van full of fabric and a business that suddenly needed a completely new direction.

It wasn't the last time the business would have to reinvent itself.

In this episode, Annah and Sami reflect on the defining decisions that have shaped the company over the past 34 years. Some came fr...

For more than twenty-two years, Dr Cynthia Ward has quietly stood beside families experiencing every parent's worst fear.

As the founder of True Colours Children's Health Trust, she has built one of New Zealand's most respected children's support organisations, providing counselling, nursing care and education for children living with life-limiting illness and the families who love them. Remarkably, she built it without government f...

For more than twenty-two years, Dr Cynthia Ward has quietly stood beside families experiencing every parent's worst fear.

As the founder of True Colours Children's Health Trust, she has built one of New Zealand's most respected children's support organisations, providing counselling, nursing care and education for children living with life-limiting illness and the families who love them.

Remarkably, she built it without government ...

How do you build one of New Zealand’s most recognised coffee brands in a market already crowded with hundreds of roasters?

This week on Stretton Unfiltered, I talk to Nick Clark, co-founder of Flight Coffee, about the reality behind the brand.

The wins. The near losses. The reinvention. The brutal COVID hit. The move from café to wholesale, supermarkets, pods, canned coffee and The Hangar in Wellington.

What I loved most wa...

Will AI Replace You or Make You Richer? 

What if you're already being outperformed by AI and don't even know it?

Artificial Intelligence is no longer coming. It's here, quietly reshaping business, education, creativity, retail, and the way we work every day. The real question is whether you're using it or being left behind by those who are.

In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, Annah sits down with Matt Browning, entrepreneur, ...

Social media strategy is one of the most searched topics for small business owners right now, and for good reason. The rules keep changing, the platforms keep shifting, and businesses that stop learning risk becoming invisible.

In this episode, Annah and Sami get honest about the social media journey behind a 34-year-old fashion brand finding its feet in a world where video is king, authenticity is currency, and a jar of lollies can...

Before the justice system ever entered her life, Gail Maney had already survived more than most people face in a lifetime. Domestic violence, poverty, sexual abuse, addiction, and a childhood that never gave her a fair shot. Then in 1997, police charged her with a murder she had absolutely nothing to do with, built on fabricated testimony, witness coercion, and a justice system that failed her at every turn. She was convi...

For more than 20 years, Annah Stretton has known Mary Haddock-Staniland not as a political talking point, but simply as a friend.

In this deeply personal and timely conversation, Mary shares her journey as one of New Zealand’s most prominent transgender advocates, media personalities, and diversity leaders, reflecting on identity, belonging, respect, and the emotional impact of seeing transgender lives debated publicly once ag...

She grew up in Te Awamutu, lost a business partner, started over more than once, fought counterfeiters all the way to China's Supreme Court, and built one of New Zealand's most recognised natural lipstick brands sold across Australia, China, the US and beyond.

In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, Annah sits down with Karen Murrell, the founder behind the iconic Karen Murrell lipstick brand, for a conversation that is as hone...

We have re-recorded this episode in celebration of the Annah Stretton brand turning thirty-four. Thirty-four years of building the Annah Stretton clothing brand is worth celebrating. But behind the brand sits a woman who has never been able to stop at just one idea.

In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, Annah sits down with her daughter Sami to take an honest look at the ventures that have run alongside the clothing company over ...

At 23, he lost a million dollars.

By 24, he was mowing lawns.

What followed was a rebuild from the ground up,  from liquidation talks, bank meetings that changed everything, and a decision to keep going when most people would have stopped.

In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, we sit down with Matt Stark, property developer behind some of Hamilton’s most recognisable spaces, including Riverbank Lane and MADE in Hamil...

In Episode 19 of Stretton Unfiltered, we take you inside 12 years of working within women’s prisons and the reality of what it takes to break the cycle of crime. This is the story behind RAW, Reclaim Another Woman. A model built not from theory, but from working alongside some of the most complex, high-risk women in New Zealand.

Women, many had normalised criminal lifestyles and outcomes Since 2014, RAW has challeng...

This is not an easy listen… but it’s an important one. In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, Annah sits down with Missy Wepper to unpack a life shaped by trauma, survival, addiction, and ultimately, accountability. From early childhood abuse and life in state care… to years inside the prison system… to navigating life on the outside after decades institutionalised, Missy shares her story with a level of...

In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, Annah sits down with New Zealand Silver Fox Modelling Agency owner Rebecca Swaney for a conversation that goes far beyond modelling.

From buying a business on instinct to building a nationally recognised agency representing women 30+ and beyond, Rebecca shares the reality of backing yourself, learning on the fly, and creating space in an industry that historically overlooked mature women...

What does it take to create a business that people will go out of their way for, and keep coming back to? In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, Annah sits down with Haley Bicknell, owner of Punnet, a rural café in Tamahere that has quietly become one of the Waikato’s most enduring and consistently busy destinations. Not because it follows the rules, but because it breaks them. From its beginnings on a strawberry f...

What does it really look like to love someone through chaos… and still find your way back to yourself? In this episode of Stretton Unfiltered, we sit down with Nikki, her story will stay with you long after the conversation ends.

From a stable upbringing to a life shaped by low self-worth, abusive relationships, and years of fear, Nikki bravely shares what it was like to live inside a world that felt impossible to escape...