Grey Areas with Petra Bagust

Episodes

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  Blessings, burdens and brain surgery | Toa Fraser + Josh Hough 04.11.2026 1h 39m

  What does it mean to live, work, and find profound grace when an incurable brain disease slowly tries to strip away your capacity, your movement, and your voice? In this episode of Grey Areas, renowned Aotearoa director, screenwriter, and playwright Toa Fraser (No. 2, The Dead Lands, Sweet Tooth) joins Petra for a compelling kōrero while dealing with medication-induced dyskinesia about his career and his Parkinson’s diagnosis. Toa initially kept the disease hidden for five years, yet now chooses to view Parkinson’s as an invaluable path toward humility, collaboration, and gratitude.  Drawing on the wisdom of Father Richard Rohr and the poignant example of his late father who faced his own physical decline with quiet equanimity, Toa reflects on what it looks like to use the second half of life wisely, how regular humiliation keeps the ego in check, and the life-changing impact of undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery while awake. The episode then weaves into an extraordinary moment of serendipity as Petra connects with Josh Hough, a young father diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson's at just 37. After randomly crossing paths with Petra on a flight home from Auckland, Josh shares his own confronting yet miraculous experience of brain surgery, the exhaustion of raising a toddler while losing physical function, and how reaching out to Toa on Instagram during his darkest hours gave him hope. Together, their stories form an unforgettable celebration of resilience, human connection, and discovering that life is always worth living whole-heartedly. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Watering a desert with my tears | Georgia Lines 28.10.2026 1h 28m

  Singer-songwriter Georgia Lines has sat inside the messy, sticky chrysalis of life, facing her deepest fears, and emerged into her thirties proud of who she is.🦋🩵 Georgia speaks publicly for the first time about navigating the painful, terrifying journey of walking through a divorce in her twenties, the exact life event she had feared most since childhood. She reflects on how the weight of shame and the terror of being misunderstood kept her from speaking about it when her album The Rose of Jericho was released. She talks about processing her feelings and the sheer resilience it took to pour her heart into those songs in the middle of packing up and moving out of her home. Together, Petra and Georgia explore the profound freedom of getting older, letting go of the need to control other people's narratives, and breaking free from the female reflex to apologise for taking up space. Georgia shares stories from her transformative year in Nashville, where southern hospitality and analog living helped her dismantle people-pleasing habits and see the emptiness of the fast-paced, AI-driven machine of modern pop songwriting.  Georgia reveals what happens when you decide to tend to the quiet, unglamorous soil of creativity, choosing the tactile grit of cassette tapes and a brand-new snail-mail letter club called Dear Reader. They delve into wrestling with faith that will accompany you through the valley rather than acting as a transactional fix, the grounding ritual of sipping limoncello in an outdoor bath, and why you already have everything you need to make a good decision. Sign up to the snail mail letter club, Dear Reader, at georgialinesmusic.com/dearreader Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  The therapist's guide to surviving ADHD distress | Charlotte Cummings 21.10.2026 1h 24m

  What do you do when the initial relief of a late diagnosis wears off and your ADHD brain starts kicking your ass again? Petra sits down with counsellor, therapist, and researcher Charlotte Cummings for a deeply honest, liberating kōrero about the emotional reality of living with a neurodivergent brain.  Charlotte opens up about her own journey toward an ADHD diagnosis, sparked by the sensory overload and executive function demands of parenthood, and explains why treating ADHD purely as a behavioral or workplace productivity issue misses the most crucial piece of the puzzle: our emotional, relational, and spiritual wellbeing. Together, Petra and Charlotte unpack the messy reality of ADHD distress, over stimulation, and Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), offering practical tools to step off the relentless productivity wheel. Charlotte shares how she builds intentional scaffolding into her life through daily decompression rhythms, weekly Thursday night baths, and flexible monthly habits without self-judgment. It is a warm, liberating conversation about learning to honor your unique brain, establishing circuit breakers against negative self-talk, and creating enough room in the world to fully become yourself. Listen to Charlotte's podcast 'Mind You' on Spotify or YouTube, and find out more at charlottecummings.nz. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  The Western dream is bankrupt | Archbishop Justin Duckworth 14.10.2026 1h 23m

  What does leadership look like when you step onto the periphery and commit to being a good neighbour above pretty much everything else? In this expansive and unexpectedly funny episode of Grey Areas, Petra sits down with Archbishop Justin Duckworth, the dreadlocked, mostly barefoot Anglican Archbishop of Aotearoa, New Zealand Tikanga Pākehā.  From growing up in Stokes Valley with no church background to living in central Wellington and working with people who live on the margins. His motivation was and is to make life a little more bearable for people who were struggling, to add a bit more joy, to prioritize those who aren't being prioritized, whose voices are not heard, or aren't heard enough. “I think… when I look back over my life, that is what drives me.” Justin is now based on a regional edge in Whanganui with his wife Jenny, and unpacks why locating himself on the margins keeps his perspective grounded and his heart open. Together, Petra and Justin get meta about the high-stakes cost of modern leadership, why we've created a culture where broken leaders are cast aside rather than restored, and how the "Western capitalist dream" has left a generation searching for a deeper, more meaningful story. Justin tackles complex global issues, from climate change and AI to political tribalism, through the lens of grace, forgiveness, and radical humility. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Disrupting how we age | Hannah McQueen 07.10.2026 1h 17m

  What does it take to stop drifting toward frailty as we age, to challenge the "live within your means" mindset, and completely rewrite how we approach both our finances and our health? Well, I’d ask Hannah McQueen… so I did. In this fiery episode of Grey Areas, Petra sits down with force-of-nature Hannah McQueen, chartered accountant, founder of EnableMe, and creator of the healthcare venture Age Brightly.  Hannah traces her journey from calculating an eight-page calculus formula to pay off her own mortgage, to helping tens of thousands of New Zealanders break free from the "death grip" of compound interest and master the emotional psychology of money. Now, Hannah is taking that same bold, system-challenging energy into a new mission: ageing brightly. After witnessing a client face a sudden $750,000 crisis to place a parent into rest home care, Hannah began pulling on a thread that led her to launch Age Brightly, a private, geriatrician-led healthcare service aimed at detecting early biological decline, preventing unnecessary hospital admissions, and slowing down cognitive decline like dementia. Together, Hannah and I explore why money and health are deeply emotional rather than purely logical, the power of coming "down the mountain" to fight for families, and why we must start honoring our elders by giving them more good, vibrant years rather than just more years of existence. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  From feeling fit to facing death | Mel Homer 30.09.2026 1h 21m

  What do you do when you’re feeling in "rude good health," working across your dream broadcasting gigs, and a routine test turns your world upside down in an afternoon? Seasoned Kiwi broadcaster Mel Homer was checking her heart health via a blood test when hours later, she was admitted to hospital, diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). A rare, aggressive, and life-threatening blood cancer that gave her zero warning.    In this raw and courageously funny episode, Petra sits down with her longtime broadcasting peer to unpack the long, high-stakes journey through "scorched earth" chemotherapy, biopsies and eyeball bleeds, and losing her hair, to finding a life-saving stem cell donor in a young French woman on the other side of the globe. Relief and love showed up in quirky moments, like sending her adult sons via FaceTime to search through her drawers for comfy undies. Mel opens up about the terrifying reality of high-risk genetic mutations, the brutal physical toll of Graft-versus-Host disease, and the emotional shift from survival mode to navigating recovery as "Mel Homer 2.0".  Together, Petra and Mel explore why aging in your 50s is a profound privilege, the importance of keeping a soft heart, and how choosing relentless positivity and dark humor can light up even the darkest hospital rooms.  Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Season 10 launches Thursday October 1st. 🩷🚀 25.09.2026 1m

  Full of great kōrero about the areas of life where we find ourselves in the grey - significant health diagnosis, neurodivergence… now what?!, aging parents and more. I sit down with disruptors, survivors, songwriters and spiritual leaders.  It’s okay to be in mid-life, just don’t attempt it alone. 😂 Join me this coming Thursday for more mayhem and magic - the brand new season is coming in hot. Hit follow on your favourite audio platform 👊 so you don’t miss out. Can’t wait to share it with you! xx Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Pushed to my limits | Sir Ashley Bloomfield 03.06.2026 1h 29m

  Sir Ashley Bloomfield spent 300-odd consecutive days walking out to a lectern and telling New Zealand the status of the public health plan. As Director-General of Health through the COVID-19 pandemic, he became one of the most recognisable faces in the country's history. Calm, consistent, and quietly formidable/ a constant presence. Five years on, he's a professor at the University of Auckland, CEO of Public Health and Forensic Science, and, as of March this year, 60 years old. In this kōrero, Petra sits down with Ashley for a broad conversation that moves from COVID reflections to growing up in Tawa, from his challenging leadership philosophy to the public health win he's most proud of, one that's adding nearly a year to the life expectancy of wāhine Māori and barely made the news. Ashley talks honestly about what it was like to lead through the pandemic and why he hopes the inquiry findings will be used to strengthen Aotearoa's future response rather than score political points. He reflects on the stranger who stopped him on a Wellington street and how that moment helped Ashley frame the season. Ashley outlines the four values he returns to again and again, kindness, courage, integrity, and humility, and why self-doubt is a feature not a bug. There's also a meander down memory lane into Ashley's early years, the year off medical school hitchhiking around Europe, sailing a yacht back from Australia, and working on a dairy farm in the UK. The Territorial Army training that stress-tested him in ways that would matter decades later. And there's the long game of public health, the slow, unsexy, generation-spanning work that doesn't get thanked, and why aging is, in Ashley's view, humankind's greatest achievement. This is a deeply decent conversation about what good leadership looks like and what it feels like to dare to be hopeful. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Louker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Look at my beautiful body | Morgana O'Reilly 27.05.2026 1h 32m

  Morgana O'Reilly is an actor, writer, and one-woman force of nature whose credits span Billy T James Award-nominated theatre, Mean Mums, Neighbours, an Emmy award-winning covid comedy thriller series called INSiDE, and White Lotus. Her one-woman show ‘Stories About My Body’, a sellout tour exploring what it means to live inside a female body across the seasons of life, has just been made into a film, crowdfunded on kindness and released into New Zealand cinemas in July. Buckle up for a rollicking ride. In this kōrero, Morgana and Petra have the kind of conversation that goes absolutely everywhere and enjoys every twist and turn. They talk about bodies, the loathing, the wrestling, the slow, imperfect, ongoing journey of coming home to yourself. Morgana shares the internal voice that shows up when disappointment strikes (“too fat, too old, too fat, too old”), as well as the realisation that her body has been bearing the brunt of any professional rejection for years, when really it's never been her body's fault at all. Morgana offers her insightful framework of whether she’s engaging in conforming or adorning as a woman and an actress. It’s a very useful frame of reference for thinking about makeup, botox, aging, and beauty standards as we move through life. The question Morgana now asks herself whenever she considers changing something about how she looks: is this a celebration, or is it an apology? They talk about dopamine as the hormone of feminism, slow-release versus quick-hit joy, and why exercise stopped being about weight and became about keeping her brain juicy, pink, and moist. There's a beautiful thread about what life looks like when the White Lotus tide recedes, the blue months, the practical brain that books the GP and the blood test but has yet to action the blood test, and what it means to succeed as an artist in cycles rather than destinations. And there's the game Morgana plays with her daughter, which might be the most quietly useful parenting tool in the entire season: what is life filled with? Pain. Which is why we have to find the joys. This one is funny, warm, wise, and genuinely fizzy. Don't miss the boob impersonation. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Louker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Give it a nudge | Brodie Kane 20.05.2026 1h 18m

  Brodie Kane does not lead a quiet life. The week Petra sits down with her, she's training for the Noosa Half Marathon, producing two podcasts, prepping a live show, MCing events across the country, and running Brodie Kane Media as a one woman band. She is, by her own admission, running around like a “blue-arse fly”. And when things are getting out of hand, she's getting better at noticing it - which is progress. In this kōrero, Brodie and Petra cover a lot of ground, talking about what it actually means to be self-employed, the freedom, the loneliness, the addictive achievement loop of answering one more text. And why giving your brain genuine rest is one of the most radical things you can do in a world that has made constant availability the default setting.  Brodie talks about sitting in a doctor's waiting room for 20 minutes without looking at her phone, and crossing the Harbour Bridge on the bus listening to Toto's “Africa”. Both feel like acts of quiet rebellion in an age that wants us to be chronically online. They get into the formation of Brodie Kane, where her fire comes from, the mum who stormed out of council meetings and took on patriarchy without apology, the grandfather who was a trade unionist, the dad who is, in Brodie's words, probably more of a feminist than she is.  Brodie talks about what it means to have a platform and choose to use it to advocate for issues she cares about and why she'd rather anger some dudes on X than have nothing to say when her grandkids ask, “What did you do?” There's also Dancing with the Stars, the podcast empire that grew and then wisely contracted, a conscious uncoupling from Stuff, a new partnership with MediaWorks, and the rebrand of Girls Uninterrupted to Let Her Finish.  And there's Josh, found unexpectedly, met while emceeing something in Rotorua, calm to her chaos, beautiful soul, and what it looks like to build a long-distance relationship on intention, communication, and genuine compromise at 39 when you know who you are. This one is feisty, fun and genuinely energising. Brodie Kane in full flight is something to behold. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support  Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  I've already fallen on my face | Robyn Malcolm 13.05.2026 57m

  Robyn Malcolm is one of New Zealand's most beloved actors. And at 61, she is, by her own account, having the time of her life. In this kōrero, Petra sits down with Robyn who’s beaming in from Glasgow, while watching squirrels in the park, writing a new project with After the Party collaborator Diane Taylor, and settling into a life that looks nothing like the one she'd have planned, and everything like the one she was always meant to live. This is a conversation that goes everywhere and earns every turn. Robyn and Petra talk about what it actually feels like to arrive at 60, the falling-over-less-scared-of-it, the inhabiting-your-own-space, the finding-it-funnier quality of a life that has already survived its worst moments.  Robyn talks about aging in an industry obsessed with youth, the Mar-a-Lago face appearing on actresses she admires, and why aspirational casting is, in her view, utterly false, because what women actually want to see on screen is themselves. They get into Robyn's late ADHD diagnosis, sparked, she says, by a Grey Areas episode, and the Rubik's Cube moment when everything she'd been told about herself clicked into place. The laziness, the avoidance, the "imagine what you could've done if you'd done some work" rewritten, at last, through a kinder and more accurate lens. The conversation moves into menopause, sexuality, and shame. And Robyn speaks openly about the documentary she's been making all around Aotearoa on menopause and mental health, including a revelation about the relationship between estrogen loss and mental health that she says astounded her. She talks about why women won't discuss sex in groups until someone goes first, why shame is the real barrier to desire in midlife, and what happened when she brought a model of the clitoris to a room full of Southland women at the Shepherdess's Muster. Warm, wide-ranging, laugh-out-loud funny, and quietly profound, this one is a delight from start to finish. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support  Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  GSM - The issue affecting 84% of menopausal women | Dr Iona Weir 06.05.2026 1h 5m

  Most conversations about menopause cover hot flushes, brain fog, and sleep. Far fewer talk about what's happening below the waist, and for up to 84% of women, that silence comes at a real cost. Dr Iona Weir is a cell biologist, inventor, and founder of biotech company Myregyna®. Her life's work centres on apoptosis, the process of programmed cell death, and specifically how compounds found in plants can reverse it. After decades developing pharmaceuticals and skincare, she turned her science towards one of the most underserved areas in women's health: genital urinary syndrome of menopause, or GSM. In this kōrero, Petra and Iona unpack what GSM actually is, and why it's so much more than vaginal dryness. From thinning urethral tissue and recurring UTIs to bladder urgency and prolapse risk, the downstream effects of declining oestrogen on this whole system are significant, under-diagnosed, and largely preventable. Iona explains the science of what's happening at a cellular level, what women can do to get ahead of it, and why pelvic floor health is one of the most important investments a woman in midlife can make. They also get into Iona's remarkable origin story, from being the first person in the world to suggest apoptosis occurs in plants, to an outrageously creative work around to secure her PhD funding, to becoming one of New Zealand's few female biotech founders. At nearly 60, she's heading to BTS in Paris, going to ABBA Voyage in London, and is actively working on securing approval from the US FDA. This episode also takes an honest look at the wellness and supplement industry from someone who has spent her career inside it. Iona's advice? Skip the vitamin cabinet. Eat the salmon cracker platter. Rotate your supplements. And stop spending money on treatments that will thin your skin now and leave you looking worse at 80. This episode contains discussion of pelvic floor health, vaginal atrophy, UTIs, and sexual function. Listen to the pelvic floor health episode we referenced in this episode: It's time we talked about our pelvic floors | Tania McLean + Melissa Davidson Support the show: greyareas.nz/support  Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Telling the truth under pressure | Barbara Dreaver 29.04.2026 1h 14m

  Barbara Dreaver has spent decades moving towards stories others walk away from. As one of New Zealand's most respected journalists and TVNZ's Pacific correspondent, she has been detained in Fiji, witnessed children in crisis across the Pacific and stood in places where telling the truth was actively discouraged. In this kōrero, Petra and Barbara sit down properly for the first time, and the conversation is exactly what you'd hope for. Barbara talks about growing up barefoot in a loving Pacific family with no money and yet extraordinary richness. What it means to carry both sides of her whakapapa (Kiwi father, Pacific Islander mother), into a career built on giving voice to people who rarely get one.  Her book, Be Brave, is the record of that work and an invitation to the rest of us to believe in the power of telling the truth and find our own why. She talks about the publisher who told her there was no interest in Pacific stories (the book is already going to a second edition), and the moments across her career where she's had to reach deep to keep going. They get into what it really means to be brave, not the absence of fear, rather knowing your why clearly enough to walk through discomfort. Barbara talks about the logging company she exposed in Vanuatu, the adoption agency trafficking children from Samoa to the US, and the night she spent locked in a Fijian detention centre not knowing what she would face in the morning. Barbara also speaks, with great care, about losing her brother Andrew to suicide, the guilt that follows, the complicated layers of grief, and why she believes his life should never be defined by how it ended. This is a conversation about courage, Pacific identity, the power of community, and finding her happiest season yet in mid-life! This episode contains discussion of sexual abuse, incarceration, suicide, and other distressing content, including the trafficking of children. Please take care as you listen. If you need support: Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text 4357 — available 24/71737 — Call or text to speak with a trained counsellor, any timeSuicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) — available 24/7Skylight (supporting those bereaved by suicide): 0800 299 100Safe to Talk (sexual harm): 0800 044 334 or text 4334 — available 24/7 Barbara Dreaver's book Be Brave is available now. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support  Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Hormones, HRT, and why you're not broken | Dr Lara Briden 22.04.2026 1h 23m

  Dr Lara Briden is back, and for good reason. The naturopathic doctor, evolutionary biologist, and bestselling author of Period Repair Manual, Hormone Repair Manual, and The Metabolism Reset is the only guest to appear on Grey Areas three times, and this kōrero might be her best yet. In this episode, Petra and Lara dig into what it means to have a female body, and why that's not the complicated, messy sidebar medicine has long made it out to be. Lara makes a compelling case that female physiology is arguably advantageous. Cyclic hormones are health-building, ovulation is powerful, and perimenopause, far from being a deficiency state, is a season women's bodies are designed to go through (and be able to thrive on the other side). This conversation goes beyond biology. Lara and Petra wrestle honestly with the perimenopause narrative that's taken hold on social media: how the welcome opening of the conversation has, in some cases, tipped into fear. Women who feel fine are now wondering if something is wrong with them. Women who aren't yet symptomatic are afraid of what's coming. Lara is direct: fear is not a wise guide. They also get into the underdiagnosed but highly reversible problem of insulin resistance, what it actually is, how to spot it on a standard blood test, and why it matters more for women's long-term heart and brain health than most GPs are telling us.  Plus: the case for magnesium, the overlooked role of iron deficiency in perimenopause symptoms, why oxytocin might be one of the most underrated health tools available, and a very practical PSA about condoms. This is a conversation for every woman who has ever stood in the supplement aisle feeling overwhelmed, or scrolled through health content and come away feeling worse. The road home is home, and Lara's message, as always, is that you're probably more okay than you think. Lara's books Period Repair Manual, Hormone Repair Manual, and The Metabolism Reset are available now. Find her at larabriden.com. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support  Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Living together, on purpose | Sir John Kirwan + Francesca Kirwan 15.04.2026 1h 31m

  What does it actually look like to choose your family? Not just love them, but live with them, day in and day out, across generations and cultures? In this kōrero, Petra sits down with All Black legend Sir John Kirwan and his daughter – volleyball player, business owner and young mum – Francesca for a warm, wide-ranging conversation. They talk intergenerational living, the Italian way of life, and what it means to build a family that stays. Francesca grew up between Auckland, Japan and Treviso, speaking Italian at home, saying goodbye to one set of grandparents to see the other, and learning early how belonging can exist in more than one place. While living in New Zealand with her husband Luca and their baby son Carlo, under the same roof as John and Fiorella, they embraced intergenerational community – and she wouldn't have it any other way. John opens up about the things he got wrong as a young father, the months away, the career-first years, and the profound gratitude he has for the grandparents who stepped in when he couldn't be there. He talks about the role sport played in building resilience in his children, why compromise is the non-negotiable foundation of communal living, and what his own father said to him in a hospital room that changed everything. We also get into John's six pillars for mental health and wellbeing in the second half of life, from managing your energy and ‘habit stacking’ to understanding what your brain actually needs, as well as his new community, Second Half. This is a conversation about the slow, generous work of living alongside the people you love most - it's about the big picture. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  BONUS: ADHD, mum-guilt & winning The Voice Australia at 40 | Tarryn Stokes 08.04.2026 56m

  Tarryn Stokes won the 12th season of The Voice Australia at 40, making her the oldest winner in the show's history. But long before the blind audition that stopped the judges in their tracks, she'd spent years singing backing vocals for Guy Sebastian and Jessica Mauboy, leading worship in churches, and quietly wondering if she'd already missed her moment. In this kōrero, Tarryn opens up about growing up in a musical family with a grand piano in the lounge, and how singing has always been her native language. We talk about her ADHD diagnosis three years ago, the shame it lifted, the lightbulb it switched on, and why she thinks it's no coincidence that so many creatives share that wiring. Tarryn also shares what it actually takes to stand on a stage and sing in front of a nation when every nerve in your body is telling you to turn and run - the visualisation techniques that got her through The Voice. We get into the dynamics of life after a win on reality TV, the manager who called out of nowhere, the record deal with Universal, and the realisation that nobody was coming to do the hard work for her. And we talk honestly about mum guilt, the juggle of touring with young kids, redefining what success looks like, and what it means to write a song for someone you love. Tarryn's new single Rubies and Gold is out now. It’s a beautiful song about knowing your worth, written for her niece. It's upbeat, generous, and sounds exactly like her. Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  BONUS: Finding your way home | Safina Stewart 01.04.2026 58m

  Born in Aotearoa, raised in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, and transplanted to suburban Melbourne at age ten, Safina Stewart has spent most of her life figuring out where home is. As an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artist, educator, and storyteller, she's had to find that answer from the inside out. In this kōrero, Safina opens up about growing up as a "bush pikinini," not learning to read until she was 18, and the quiet devastation of arriving in Australia as a child with no map for the path ahead. We talk about the 2023 Voice referendum, what it cost her community, and how it lit a fire in her art. Safina shares, with remarkable honesty, the years she spent in a marriage marked by domestic violence and sexual assault, and how becoming a mother became both her anchor and the beginning of learning to love herself. We also explore perimenopause through an Indigenous lens, the power of community and the myth of the individual, equity scholarships, and the grief of losing her brother, musician and artist Stuart Fergie, to covid complications. This is a conversation about survival, defiance, and the deep, generous kind of love that holds people together across generations and cultures. This episode covers confronting topics including domestic violence, sexual assault, and suicidal thoughts. Please be kind to yourself as you listen. If you need support: Safe to Talk (sexual harm): 0800 044 334 or text 4334 — available 24/7 Women's Refuge: 0800 733 843 — available 24/7 Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text 4357 — available 24/7 1737 — Need to talk? Call or text 1737 to speak with a trained counsellor, any time Support the show: greyareas.nz/support Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Season 9 is coming - 16th April 21.03.2026 1m

  Kia ora e te whānau! In the melee of mid-life - which can be dense, frantic and fabulous all at once - we need spaces to listen to each other and to ourselves, and it’s useful to navigate those gritty ‘grey areas’ together. This season, we aren’t holding back - digging deep into topics that matter most to us right now like hormones, skin, aging parents, courage and keeping on keeping on (and we add a little sparkle for good measure)! Hormone Health: Dr Lara Briden joins Petra in person to give us more hormone hacks and mid-life metabolism love. Intergenerational Living: Sir John Kirwan and Francesca Kirwan share the realities of modern family life. Skin & Body Wisdom: We tackle nore of the "unspoken" stuff—from GSM (Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause) to skincare science with Dr. Iona Weir. Taking Action: The powerhouse Brodie Kane joins us to talk about finding your voice and making moves. Purpose & Determination: We sit down with Barbara Dreaver to discover what drives her. Heart of the Matter: Real talk on the intersection of marriage and menopause. Plus, so much more… don’t miss an episode! Hit the Follow button right now on your favourite podcast app to get notified the moment Season 9 drops. Grey Areas: Because life isn’t black and white, and the magic is in the middle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  Go your own way | Lucy Lawless 12.11.2025 1h 17m

  In this episode, I sit down with the legendary Lucy Lawless — actor, director, and all-round creative force — for a real conversation about what it means to embrace midlife - to dig into the surprise and delight of this season. Lucy shares how her fifties have brought a renewed sense of drive and possibility. We talk about learning to take risks, staying open to being changed by others, and the freedom that comes from trying, even when success isn’t guaranteed. From her role in Pike River to stepping behind the camera as a director and tackling bold creative projects, Lucy’s still challenging herself to keep saying yes to the things that scare us. Support the show: ⁠greyareas.nz/support⁠ Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  End your fight with food | Claire Turnbull 05.11.2025 1h 23m

  In our fast-paced, image-oriented world, it's no surprise that our relationship with food - especially as our bodies change in midlife - can sometimes be fraught.  In this kōrero, Claire Turnbull, a seasoned nutritionist and author of, End Your Fight with Food, opens up about her personal challenges and provides insights into the complex world of eating, self-image, and holistic well-being.  We dive into some of her key teaching to inspire and guide us toward a healthier relationship with our bodies, brains and plates.  This episode tackles some confronting topics - if you need help, contact Lifeline on 0800 543 354 or text 4357 (HELP) (available 24/7). Or get in touch with Eating Disorders Association of New Zealand if you need help finding a private provider in your area by phoning Ph 0800 2 EDANZ or emailing info@ed.org.nz Support the show: ⁠greyareas.nz/support⁠ Song credit: Korimako, Performed by Aro, Written by Emily Looker and Charles Looker and published by Songbroker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices