Emma Twigg is one of New Zealand’s greatest rowers and won Olympic gold in Tokyo and Olympic silver in Paris.

This is Emma’s second appearance on Between Two Beers and life has changed a lot since we recorded with her at her Cambridge home back in 2020.

In this episode we talk about her emotional Olympic triumphs, her health scare leading into Paris, motherhood, athlete well-being, elite sport and what her future holds.

Samuel Whitelock is one of the greatest rugby players New Zealand has produced.

He's the most capped All Black in history with 153 caps. He went to four Rugby World Cups and won two. He also played in 181 Super Rugby Games and won seven titles with the Crusaders.

He joins us to share some incredible leadership lessons from his time with the All Blacks and Crusaders, the most challenging moments of his career, his love of Harry Potter and knitting, and more.

Shaun Quincey is a top business executive and angel investor helping fund Kiwi business dreams.

But before that he became the only person to have successfully rowed solo from Australia to New Zealand and became a top selling author after writing a book about it.

We spent the first half talking about his epic solo Tasman voyage. Then in the second half we talk about his incredible business success.

Paula George – or Georgie as she’s commonly known – has a story that will blow you away.

Her life started on the back foot in Wales, but she found safety in sport, where she became a star. She was one of the first professional women’s rugby players and eventually went to six World Cups in two sports.

She became the digital content creator for the All Blacks, had twins, cancer and now she’s doing incredible work with the Tania Dalton Foundation.

Adam El-Agez is a Kiwi entrepreneur who turned an idea for a fitness goal setting app into a global business with revenue exceeding $80 million a year.

His app is called The Conqueror, and he started it in 2012 after 10 years of working in other start ups with limited success. Then in 2019, in a bizarre series of events, he ended up meeting a marketing whiz online.

The business has now expanded globally with around 70 staff in 6 countries with customers in over 150 countries.

Matthew Ridge is a Kiwi sporting legend.

He was one of NZ’s top rugby union players then made a stunning switch to rugby league as a 21-year-old in 1990. Over the next decade he played for the Manly Sea Eagles, Warriors, and Kiwis.

After retiring from league, he became a part-owner of the Warriors and one of New Zealand’s most popular and successful TV stars – before enjoying success in the business world.

Jackie van Beek is one of New Zealand’s funniest and most creative minds.

She’s one of the two creators of the Australian re-make of The Office which has just been released this month.

But she’s also written, directed, and starred in productions like What We Do In The Shadows, The Breaker Upperers, Nude Tuesday, Golden Boy - and that’s just scratching the surface.

Andrew Mehrtens is a legend of NZ Rugby and the second highest All Blacks point scorer of all time.

Few players have earned such wide popularity and affection as Mehrts and he’s also widely regarded as one of the most intelligent All Blacks.

He was also a Crusaders’ cult hero, winning five Super Rugby titles with the franchise in 10 seasons before finishing his playing career in Europe,

Still popular with fans and media alike, Mehrtens is now a respected commentator, pundit, and keynote speaker.

Bree Tomasel is one of New Zealand’s most popular and loved broadcasters.

She’s the hilarious, fun-loving co-host of ZM’s Bree and Clint Drive Show, she’s the host of celebrity Treasure Island on TVNZ, she has 1.5 million followers across her social media channels and in 2022 was named New Zealand TV Personality of the Year.

She’s also just released her book and in it we discover a different side of Bree, she writes about some of the most difficult and challenging chapters of her life, and in this episode she talks about it all publicly for the first time.

Murray Thom is one of New Zealand’s most successful and creative entrepreneurs.

He’s the man behind some of our most iconic and successful productions, including The Great New Zealand Songbook, The Great New Zealand Cookbook, The Offering, and Piano by Candlelight.

On the international front, two of his productions – Miracle Babies and the Together 10 CD Collection – have both featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Dame Lisa Carrington is a world champion kayaker and ​New Zealand's most decorated Olympian.

Since we last spoke, she won three Olympic gold medals in Paris – bringing her career tally to an astounding eight gold medals – and cementing her place amongst the world’s greatest ever Olympians.

But for the first time, Dame Lisa Carrington reveals her shocking build-up to the 2024 Olympics.

Craig Fenton is a former CEO of New Zealand Rugby Commercial who was charged to drive the business of the All Blacks, Black Ferns and other teams in black. But Craig was not your typical rugby administrator.

He owns a record label and a film production company, he has his pilot’s license, he was a lawyer, he worked at Google for six years, he hosted his own podcast and he’s on the cutting edge of all the latest trends and developments with AI and technology.

Matiu Walters is the lead singer and guitarist of New Zealand’s band Six60.

The group formed in Dunedin in 2008, and across the last 16 years have broken all the rules to become New Zealand’s biggest band.

In 2019 they became the first New Zealand act to sell out Western Springs and in 2021 became the first band to ever play Eden Park to a sold-out crowd of 50,000.

Tim Batt is a pioneer in the digital audio space and one of New Zealand's most impressive creative talents.

He's the producer and co-host of NZ's most popular podcast - The Worst Idea of All Time - with 20 million downloads, he's created his own podcast network, won multiple comedy awards, produced radio for Matt Heath, he's a standup comedian, was a co-chair of the NZ comedy guild, and a father of two kids under three.

Kanoa Lloyd is one of New Zealand’s top broadcasters and became a household name as one of the three inaugural presenters of 7pm current affairs / entertainment show The Project where she stayed for seven years.

She first made her name in children’s TV, then traded in stints as a university student and massage therapist to join Sticky TV, after a period on commercial radio, she then became a weather presenter for 3 News, where she won headlines for introducing Te Reo Māori in her bulletins.

Cameron Leslie is one of New Zealand’s most successful athletes.

Born a quadruple amputee, he’s a world-record holder who has won gold medals at three Paralympics in swimming, a Halberg Award winner and the co-captain of the New Zealand Wheel Blacks.

He’s also a father of three kids under five, runs a farm, has a fulltime job at Swimming NZ and has an inspirational outlook on life – though he won’t like us using that word!

Paralympics New Zealand is looking to challenge perceptions around disability with their Paris 2024 campaign ‘we’ll give you something to talk about’ and this episode certainly does that.

Jamie Pennell had an esteemed career as a soldier and leader inside the New Zealand SAS. He was sent on multiple combat operations in Afghanistan to assist other nations and the Afghan special forces in the war on terror.

After leaving the Defence Force, Jamie worked with high performance athletes where he helped them achieve their sporting goals.

Jamie now works as the Head of Mangatāwhiri Campus, Dilworth School, delivering their Learning in the Outdoors Programme, Te Haerenga (The Journey), training young men in skills for life.

A familiar face for over 30 years, Jason Gunn is one of a kind.

He’s one of New Zealand's most loved entertainers, and with his authentic, confident and compelling style he’s the best storyteller we've had on the podcast.

Many Kiwis grew up watching him on TV after school and to share his life story with so much depth was a really cool experience for us.

When he walks into a room – he makes it a better place. His energy is contagious, and we shared some incredibly special, emotional moments of connection in this episode.

David Nykia is one of NZ’s best boxers. He’s won two Commonwealth Games gold medals, an Olympic bronze, was the NZ flagbearer at the Rio Olympics and since turning professional has a record of nine fights, nine wins.

But he’s also one of the nicest guys in boxing.

So nice, that he agreed to come back and record an episode with us after we recorded our first episode with him in July 2022 but lost all of the audio before we could release it. 🤦‍♂️

Luckily, David doesn’t remember most of that chat - so this was a fresh second take!

Anna Reeve has also made a name for herself as the number one social media influencer in New Zealand, and it’s easy to see why. Everything with her is authentic.

But she is more than that.

She’s a mother of twin boys, a business owner, a global alopecia ambassador and a former international fashion model. Anna is fun, smart, up for a laugh – and is great company.