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PODCAST

Take It From Us with Kent Johns

Take It From Us is the voice of lived experience. In this podcast, you"ll hear real people share honest stories about mental health, addiction, trauma and recovery - straight from their own journeys.They"ll tell you what actually worked, what didn"t, and what they wish they"d known sooner.Host Kent Johns is a former broadcaster-turned-health-coach who believes everyone has a story to tell if people take the time to really listen.So settle in, you"re going to hear some stories. Take it from us - and

society & culture personal journals

All Episodes

29:30

Kayla Schwalger: How Samoan culture became my mental...

Take It From Us with Kent Johns ·

2025/08/12

Growing up between two worlds, Kayla Schwalger felt disconnected from her Samoan heritage while trying to succeed in New Zealand - a struggle many second-generation Pacific Islanders know well. Moving to Samoa at 14 helped, but it also brought challenges including undiagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder in a culture where mental health often wasn't discussed. Today, this Pacific mental health advocate co-runs Tapasā with her mother, reconnecting Pacific youth to their culture. Throu...

en-nz

36:09

Tui Taurua: How I used traditional Māori healing to...

Take It From Us with Kent Johns ·

2025/08/05

Tui Taurua calls herself a "mental health warrior" - and after her journey, she's earned that title. From 1977 to 2001, she spent over two decades cycling in and out of psychiatric hospitals, hearing voices that doctors called "hallucinations" and taking up to 25 medications a day that left her sedated on the couch, watching life pass her by. When Western medicine failed her, Tui made a terrifying but life-changing decision - she walked away from the psychiatric system and embraced Te W...

en-nz

38:08

Chris Ranui-Molloy: Recovering from addiction using...

Take It From Us with Kent Johns ·

2025/07/29

Chris Ranui-Molloy's journey from a declining Bay of Plenty logging town to founding Recovery Street is a story of transformation through the most unlikely medium - theatre. Growing up with a 'FTW mentality' in Murupara, Chris nearly ended up in gang life before heading to drama school in Auckland where isolation, depression, and addiction left him struggling to fit into an unfamiliar world. Time in prison followed, before he sought treatment at Higher Ground. Eight years clean and sobe...

en-nz

37:15

Rhonda Hāpi-Smith: Surviving 20 years as a female...

Take It From Us with Kent Johns ·

2025/07/22

Rhonda Hāpi-Smith describes her career as a female prison officer in New Zealand as "wonderful, devastating, fantastic and heartbreaking" - and those contradictions tell the whole story. For 20 years, she walked among dangerous criminals at Rimutaka and Hawkes Bay men's prisons, loving the brotherhood, the resilience she witnessed, and the humour that got her through each day. But the career she loved also slowly broke her down - sometimes compromising her principles, destroying relatio...

en-nz

28:37

Teen leader Lola Fisher: How to give young people a...

Take It From Us with Kent Johns ·

2025/07/15

At 17, Lola Fisher is living proof that young people don't need to wait their turn to lead. What started as COVID lockdown boredom became her vision for Create Happy Media - a youth-led platform reaching 30,000+ readers after Lola discovered how negatively young people were portrayed in headlines. This conversation reveals what it's really like being young in New Zealand today - from social media debates to demanding a seat at the decision-making table. Lola's driving philosophy: "If no...

en-nz

26:50

Lisa McDonald & Veronica Shale: Why we're giving up...

Take It From Us with Kent Johns ·

2025/07/08

This July, thousands of New Zealanders will go alcohol-free for Dry July - but for breast cancer survivor Lisa McDonald, the cause is deeply personal. After facing aggressive treatment including bilateral mastectomy and chemotherapy, Lisa experienced firsthand how the Dry July-funded support services like "Look Good Feel Better" made her feel "a million bucks" during her darkest days. Dry July NZ Campaign Director Veronica Shale reveals how the cause has raised over $11 million since 2012, su...

en-nz

31:32

Grace Curtis: The best is yet to come

Take It From Us with Kent Johns ·

2025/07/01

In 2020, Grace Curtis faced an unimaginable tragedy when she discovered her father's body after he died by suicide, and had to break the devastating news to her family. What followed was a long period of being bedridden with depression, convinced she would never feel peace again. Five years later, Grace has transformed her darkest experience into a mission of hope. She's the author of a new book, The Best Is Yet To Come and a powerful advocate for suicide loss survivors. This raw, hones...

en-nz

0:56

Trailer

Take It From Us with Kent Johns ·

2025/06/25

Take It From Us is back. What started as an award-winning community radio show is now something bigger. Host Kent Johns is still here with his same mix of straight talk and warmth, just in a brand-new podcast format. Take It From Us is still about talking to real people about what it's actually like to live through the hard stuff - like addiction, trauma, mental health challenges and recovery. Same energy. Same realness. Just bigger conversations. Hit follow - when life gets...

en-nz

28 results

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