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.

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 hidden while the world saw a highlight reel.

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's also very funny about the rest of the industry it - falling into comedy almost by accident, the terror of her first gig, and three decades of standing in front of a crowd talking about herself for a living.

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.

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 environment wrong and the most gifted person in the room fails.

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

He delivers the talk every parent needs to hear - and pulls no punches about 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 safe.

Rob also has a Wild Dad movement getting fathers off their phones and back into their kids' lives.

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.

But this is also the story of one of New Zealand's greatest living writers. The Motley Crüe interview that ended with him thrown against a wall. The letter that got him sacked from the Sunday magazine. Failing out of journalism school, learning to type by copying out Sylvia Plath, and 46 years of skewering phonies and squares - plus the surprisingly tender stuff: his late brother Mark, his daughter Minka, and why his dream is to one day stop writing altogether.

Futurist Frances Valintine (founder of Academy X and Tech Futures Lab) joins the show to map what New Zealand actually looks like in20 years, and it's a sobering picture.

We're one of the fastest-changing populations on earth: ageing fast, with a birth rate well below replacement and a workforce shrinking from four people per retiree toward just two. Her warning is that we're already late to plan for it.

From there the conversation turns to AI and the future of work, where Frances is blunt - every job ahead will have an AI component, and the longer you wait to understand it, the harder it gets.

For 20 years, Darren Shand was the most powerful person in All Blacks rugby that nobody knew about. As Team Manager across four Rugby World Cups - including the back-to-back title wins of 2011 and 2015 - Shand sat above the coaches, managed the operation, and helped build the cultural architecture of the most successful international rugby team in history. He worked alongside Sir Graham Henry, Sir Steve Hansen, Sir Wayne Smith, Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, and some of the greatest players to ever pull on the black jersey.

Stacey Morrison has been a fixture of New Zealand television and radio for thirty years - but this is the story behind the story - growing up embarrassed by her Māori identity, a gruelling fifteen year journey to te reo fluency, the heartbreaking loss of her mum Sue, and finding the love she never thought she'd have with Scotty Morrison.

Nate Alley grew up in Tokoroa without a father, got kicked out of school at 16, and spent the better part of a decade angry, lost, and making decisions he's not proud of.

Today he runs his own Sentinel Homes franchise in the Waikato, with nearly 200 million dollars in construction work completed over the last decade.

In the most personal interview of his career, New Zealand's most beloved NBA export Steven Adams sits down with Between Two Beers exclusively to tell his full story and why giving back is the only thing that truly matters to him.

Stacey Jones has given 27 years to the Warriors - from foundation player to the coaching staff helping build the next generation.

In April 2020, during lockdown, Dai Henwood received a terminal cancer diagnosis. He kept it hidden. He kept doing stand-up. He kept doing interviews. He kept being Dai Henwood, while privately getting to grips with something nobody in his family had ever faced before.

Four and a half years after his first appearance on the show, he sits back down with Steve and Seamus.

Kieran Read is one of the greatest All Blacks of all time.

Two-time World Cup winner, Crusaders legend, and the man who replaced Richie McCaw as captain with 800 tests of combined experience suddenly out the door.

But four years on from his first appearance on Between Two Beers, the most interesting chapter of Kieran's story is only just beginning.

Ruben Miller spent 22 years as a forensic scientist in New Zealand, working on more than 160 homicide investigations.

This is the story of what it cost him.

Ruben's book The Blood Says Otherwise is out now at all good bookstores and online.

Melie Kerr joins us fresh off being named White Ferns captain across all formats and scoring a T20 century on captaincy debut - the first woman ever to do so.

But this episode goes well beyond cricket. Growing up in one of New Zealand's most celebrated cricket families, Melie was the kid who made her dad commentate 7am net sessions as if she was playing in a World Cup final. She went on to become the youngest ever White Fern, break records, and win that World Cup. From the outside, she had everything - her dream job and an amazing family.

But behind it, she was fighting something nobody could see.

Liam Messam is one of the most beloved figures in New Zealand rugby.

Two-time Super Rugby champion, All Black, World Cup winner, and a 20-year servant of the Chiefs. But behind the jersey is a story most people have never heard.

Adopted at six weeks old into a Rotorua family that went on to foster close to a thousand children, Liam opens up about identity, belonging, and the household that gave him everything he is today.

Susan Hassall arrived at Hamilton Boys' High School in 1979 as a 22-year-old English teacher. She stayed for 46 years. In 1999, she became the first woman in New Zealand to be appointed headmaster of a boys' state school, a role she held for exactly 25 years.

We talk about her mantra - "you can pretend to care, but you can't pretend to show up" - the Greek concept of aretē that became the school's cornerstone, why she believes vulnerability is the most important quality in a leader, and what people get wrong about teenage boys.

Whether you're a parent, a teacher, a coach, or just someone trying to figure out what matters most, this one's for you.

Brad Thorn is one of the most unique champions New Zealand sport has ever produced.

A dual-code legend, Brad achieved what almost no one has - winning NRL premierships, World Cups, Super Rugby titles, and earning the right to wear the All Blacks jersey at the highest level.

But behind the trophies is an obsession with discipline, standards, and doing the work that others won’t, the moments that hardened him, the sacrifices required to chase the black jersey, and why he believes “champions do extra.”