Between Two Beers Podcast

Sean Fitzpatrick is one of the most decorated All Blacks of all time. A World Cup winner, one of the game's great captains, and the man who led the last New Zealand side to tour South Africa and win a series there.

With the All Blacks back in South Africa for the first full tour in 30 years, there's no better time to hear it from the man who did it.

We sat down with Fitzy for a wide-ranging yarn: the Sacred Heart teacher who gave him three messages he still lives by, the lineout throw he trained nine months to fix, the captaincy he never wanted - and the advice that made him a leader, "be comfortable in your own skin." Plus Jonah Lomu the shy giant, the 1996 series win in South Africa, and 20 years living in London.

Then he opens up on the part of his life most New Zealanders have never seen: chairing the Laureus Sport for Good academy, and travelling the world watching sport pull kids out of impossible situations - from India to Sierra Leone to a midnight basketball court in London. A different side of one of our most familiar sporting figures.

Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.

Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.
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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 reconnecting with past guests a few weeks on, and we want your questions. Keep an eye on our socials for who's next and send them through.

Plus: The Foursquare conference saga that nearly took us both out, and the moment Steve had to physically hook Sir John Key off stage in front of 350 people. We recap Grant Baker's massive episode on why New Zealand needs a better attitude.
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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 bet on one company, the years of "drinking from a fire hose," the midnight deals that nearly sent him broke, and facing a cancer diagnosis at the height of it all.

He reflects on his mentor Eric Watson, his partnership with Geoff Ross building 42 Below, why he believes the real key to success is how much pain you can endure, and how he came to back Kiwi driver Liam Lawson's rise to Formula One.

Now a Ferrari collector - 50 and counting - Grant shares hard-won lessons on ambition, resilience, giving back, and why you should never die wondering.

Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.

Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 approach every show; treating YouTube as a shop window and audio as a routine, and what that means for the work; the football-team analogy for figuring out who plays which role as the team grows; managing contractors and when to bring them in-house; refining five company values down to three; and why the smartest growth move right now is consolidation - slowing down to speed up, no shiny new things.

An honest look at what it takes to keep building a podcast business well past the garage-and-a-microphone stage.

Thank you to Odoo for supporting Accidental Business Owners.
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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 conversations we've ever had, Becki talks about planning her own funeral - the plywood coffin, the celebrant, the plan to climb in herself just to make everyone laugh - and about the parts that aren't funny at all: the fear, the reality of leaving her kids behind, and the perspective that's come with facing it head-on.

It's a conversation full of light and shade. We talk about the Cancer Crushers, the village of friends carrying Becki and her kids, the health system she's had to fight through, her daughter Maddie's unforgettable words, and the humour that's got her through all of it.

Between Two Beers is proudly brought to you by One New Zealand. We believe that One NZ connects New Zealand, while Between Two Beers connects New Zealanders. And together, we are NZ's most trusted connection platform.

Steve and Seamus are proud to be dressed by Barkers Clothing.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.