Between Two Beers Podcast

Two weeks ago, Israel Dagg sat down for what's become one of the biggest episodes we've ever released, and it turned his fortnight upside down.

So we brought him back to find out what all of that has actually been like: the messages from players he hadn't heard from in years, the days he had to switch his phone off, and why he'd still tell anyone in a dark place the same thing.

This is the first of something new - we're recon...

Grant Baker started with nothing - biking to sales meetings and hiding the bike around the corner so clients wouldn't know he couldn't afford a car.

He'd go on to build and sell some of New Zealand's best-known companies: 42 Below vodka (sold to Bacardi for $138M), skincare giant Trilogy, and the automotive empire now known as Turners.

In this episode he tells the full story of going all in - selling everything he owned to be...

or the first time in seven years, we got the whole team in one room and did something uncomfortable: we audited our own podcast.

Eight people, one question on the table - if we rebuilt this from scratch, what would it actually be? What came out of it changed how we think about nearly everything we make.

We sit down with Di Foster to work through what's changing and why: why "platform-driven content" is reshaping how they appr...

Becki Ross was given two to three years to live. Diagnosed at 42 with stage four, incurable bowel cancer, she's a mum of two teenagers, a teacher, and one of those rare people who lights up a room the second she walks in.

When we recorded this, Becki had just been told her treatment options had run out - that the cancer was, in her words, "declaring itself," and that her time is now very short.

In one of the most powerful con...

Steven and Seamus go behind the scenes of the Izzy Dagg episode that's gone massive - the research calls, why Izzy almost didn't tell his story, and the reaction that's followed since.

Plus: the new dream guest list - who's next after Graham Norton - a big week for the team, emceeing the Master Builders House of the Year awards, and commentating Auckland FC v Tottenham.

A very special episode drops next Sunday too, and it&rsq...

Israel Dagg had everything he'd ever chased - a Rugby World Cup, a young family, the life a kid from a Hawke's Bay state house could only dream of. Then he retired, and the question underneath it all hit at once: “if I'm not an All Black, who am I?”

In one of the most open conversations we've had on the show, Israel comes clean on the five years that followed - the addiction, the depression, and the spiral he kept hi...

We are back from the World Cup with a case of post-event blues and a bigger question: we built our dream - but, is it still the dream?

In this consolidation episode, we share our lists about what we want the next two and a half years to look like - and discover how closely aligned we’ve become. Di digs into what "important" means now that the podcast is commercially sound, why neither of us is a natural galvaniser, and wha...

Justine Smith has been a fixture of New Zealand comedy for more than 30 years - a Seven Days regular and one of the few women who lasted in a room that pushed most others out.

She opens up on the comedy environment younger women were up against, the treatment she swallowed to keep going, and how she turned that guilt into becoming the person the next generation of female comics now comes to. She's also very funny about the rest ...

We debrief on Seamus' dream guest, Graham Norton - with Sammy and Char on the mics to break down how it went, and how dusty Steve was at the 5.30am start.

Then the boys dig into whether there's anything to the Argentina World Cup conspiracy doing the rounds, before Steve gets Che’s take on surviving the school holidays and the "spare part" phase of early parenting (plus the questions kids fire at you when you least expect ...

He's spent nearly 30 years getting the world's biggest stars to open up - but Graham Norton rarely sits on the other side of the mic.

The most famous chat show host on the planet pulls back the curtain on his craft: the psychology of who sits where on that famous sofa, why the guests always outrank him, and the research ritual that's funnier than the show itself.

He also goes somewhere he almost never does - the San Francisco...

You can pour everything into the biggest thing you'll ever build - and still find the part you remember has nothing to do with the work.

Fresh off three weeks at the FIFA World Cup in North America, Steven and Seamus sit down with their business coach Di Foster for a proper mid-year debrief: the enormity of what they pulled off (19 daily shows, four partners, a whole TV operation), the studio they spent tens of thousands buildin...

He's got a championship ring his own kids have never seen - it lives in a closet.

Scott Goldman is a high-performance psychologist who's spent 30 years inside some of the biggest teams in world sport, including the Golden State Warriors, and works across five professional franchises at once.

His whole philosophy flips how you think about success: you're not your talent, you're your talent times your environment. Get the envir...

The boys are back on home soil to unpack the most chaotic three weeks of the show's life.

They relive the Radio & Podcast Awards and unpack the World Cup experience: 19 daily shows in a row for Between Two Goals, the flying Kiwis march to the Egypt game, Finn Surman's header, and 45 minutes of the best football either of them has ever watched - before the Belgium reality check.

Along the way: a 6am video call with bucket-list...

Jason Gunn is one of New Zealand's most beloved entertainers - but behind the energy, the warmth, and the laugh, is a man who has faced some of life's hardest moments.

In this episode, Jase opens up about suffering a heart attack at 47, and the moment lying in a hospital bed when his life's priorities became crystal clear. He talks about his son Louis - then a teenager - ripping up his radio contract and telling him "that's not ...

Seamus arrives feeling it: New baby at home. A World Cup project about to go live. A calendar that was built before either of those things was certain, now collapsing on top of each other.

He's saying yes to everything - commentary gigs, MC slots, the lot. And somewhere underneath all of it, he's saying no to the people who matter most without realising that's what he's doing.

This one covers the procrastination spiral that k...

Rob Cope has spoken to over 40,000 New Zealand parents about the dangers hiding in their children's online world.

In this episode, he delivers the talk every parent needs to hear - and pulls no punches doing it.

They cover the reality of what kids are accessing online, why good kids in good homes aren't protected, the neuroscience of screen addiction, what the government is getting wrong, practical tools to keep your kids saf...

New Zealand drew 2-2 with Iran in one of the great All Whites performances - scoring twice, leading twice, and finishing top of Group G on goal difference. Eli Just became the first All White to score twice at a World Cup.

Steve and Seamus were inside SoFi Stadium in LA when it happened. This episode, recorded the morning after, is their unfiltered reaction from the ground - what the game felt like in the stadium, what Eli Just'...

Steve Braunias sat through every day of the Polkinghorne trial - the society murder that gripped New Zealand - and wrote the bestselling book on it. He liked the accused. He chatted with him every morning. And he more than entertains the possibility that Phil Polkinghorne is an innocent man.

In this episode, Steve takes us inside the eight weeks that felt like "a carnival": the forensic evidence that won and lost the case, the m...

Di Foster arrived ready to coach. Then she realised the smartest coaching move was to stop coaching.

In this episode she explains why: Between Two Beers is in ‘execution season’, and what sport understands about seasons and rhythms is something most businesses never name.

We get into why Steve and Seamus are slightly misaligned on what they really want, the delegation trap of "it takes 2 minutes to do but 15 minut...