Take It From Us with Kent Johns

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The 4000 kiwi adults stuck living at home with Mum and Dad

2026-09-1725:53

Flynn Mitchell spent three years in a Dunedin university flat built for wheelchair users — accessible kitchen, accessible bathroom, full independence. Then he moved home to Auckland and lost all of it. Now he needs a carer just to wash his own dishes. He's not alone. Ray Finch, CEO of the Laura Ferguson Trust, says nearly 4,000 physically disabled adults across New Zealand are living with ageing parents, not by choice but because nothing accessible exists for them. With most of those parents ...

Sam Cox survived the car crash. Then he had to relearn everything he'd lost

2026-09-1028:18

On New Year's Eve 2022, Sam Cox went through the windscreen of a car doing over 100km/h down a gravel road outside Rangiora. His best friend Kaide, who was driving, didn't survive. Sam did — with a brain injury so severe it took him five months to even understand Kaide was gone. Now 19, Sam talks to Kent about memory loss, losing his old friend group, the dad he lost not long after and the mum he now calls his rock. He also opens up about the one thing keeping him going: the sense that he's b...

Shane Cameron thought he was a dumb kid. Boxing was his answer.

2026-09-0350:05

Shane Cameron spent 17 years as a professional heavyweight boxer — a Commonwealth Games bronze, a world title shot and the 2009 fight against David Tua that ended with him in an ambulance. He didn't watch the footage back until last year. In this episode, Shane talks to Kent about the memory loss, anger and mood swings he now lives with day to day, and what happened when he asked to be tested for brain damage: a neuropsychologist told him CTE can't be confirmed until after death. ...

The second time he was asked, Tai Tupou finally told the truth

2026-08-2730:37

At 22, Tai Tupou learned that the man who raised him wasn't his biological father. He told no one. For three years he isolated himself, burned bridges and had no idea he was living with depression — until a colleague asked him a simple question. Twice. In this episode, Tai — founder of the The Last Chance Project and a mental health advocate of 14 years — talks about growing up in a Samoan household where you only spoke when spoken to, the "traffic light" system he now uses to help men name w...

For 15 years, she studied eating disorders. She was hiding one too.

2026-08-2042:22

Five years ago, Meg Vardy was a UK-based researcher studying treatment for anorexia. What most of her colleagues didn't know: she'd been living with anorexia herself for 15 years. She's since stepped away from academia to launch JourneyED, a Dunedin-based charity offering free peer support to people across Aotearoa navigating eating disorders — because, in her words, no one should have to go through it alone. This week on Take It From Us, Meg shares her story and her vision for what recovery-...

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