Keegan and Company

In this episode Kalyn and I discuss the rule change that opened the door, and why his dad and his sister were the biggest reasons he chose the Kiwis. Walking into his first Māori camp in 2019 nervous, because he felt like “the white kid”. What Origin still means to him. Growing up in New Zealand with a dad who is one of 11. What playing for the Kiwis would mean to his old man. And why he wants to learn about where he comes from. This is part of my second chat with Kalyn Ponga. We recorded it at the start of April 2026, about three weeks after he announced his switch from Australia to New Zealand. Seven months on, he made his Kiwis debut at the Rugby League World Cup, broke his arm in that game, and came back 23 days later to help get New Zealand into their first World Cup final since 2013. We’ve loved watching him this year, so it felt like the right time to put this part of our chat out on its own. For the full episode: #174 Kalyn Ponga Returns! What his Mindset Coach Taught Him & Why He Chose the Kiwis: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube For more just like this: #82 Nathan Cleary: Daily Disciplines, FOPO & Dealing with pressure: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube #32 Jordan Riki: Pain Tolerance, Mates and a Bottle of Wine: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube #7 Patrick Carrigan: Whats changed at the Broncos, Patty vs Harry Grant and Perspective is everything: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Listen and subscribe:SpotifyApple PodcastsYouTube Follow for more:Podcast InstagramKeegan's InstagramTikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zac Perez grew up in Bendigo, where all his best mates happened to be the same age as him. For about five years he and a group of mates have sent each other a short video every Wednesday. A bit over a year ago he became a dad, and a week or two in he felt a little isolated for the first time: he was the only dad left at parents group, and his mates had had their kids at least ten years earlier. He wrote his way through his first 50 days, and that became his book, Becoming Dad. Then, in the middle of winter, he tried to start a dads' walking group and nobody turned up. He posted about it anyway, and the next time about 50 dads came along. In this episode Zac and I discuss that walk: the first one, when it was two dads and one baby, the video he made when nobody came, and what he noticed about the dads who turned up after it. We talk about staying a good mate when you've got a newborn, the group chat he answered in the middle of the night, and how the Wednesday Waffle works. Then the first year itself: how much of a creature of habit he'd become, the five unfinished jobs around the house, a 3am moment from day 40 of the book, and what changed once he started walking with his son strapped to his chest. We compare notes, since I'm a new dad myself, and get into putting the phone away around his son, saying g'day to every kid in the street, and the one thing he hopes never changes. Free your team from time-consuming procurement tasks. Discover smart business buying, where unmatched selection meets AI-driven tools to simplify complex processes so you can focus on what matters most. Learn more at amazon.com.au/keegan For more just like this: #93 Hayley Wilson: Overcoming Doubt, Olympic Pressures and Dark Times: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTubeHayley on her parents, and how much they shaped her. #160 Andy Buchanan: Finding Purpose In Running: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTubeAnother Bendigo boy, on the running family he grew up in. #207 "The biggest blessing in disguise" Life Update: I Became a Dad Two Weeks Ago: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTubeThe life update Zac brings up, from my first two weeks as a dad. Listen and subscribe:SpotifyApple PodcastsYouTube Follow for more:Podcast InstagramKeegan's InstagramTikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adam Wood was barely recruited out of high school in Utah. He reached out to the coach at BYU anyway, was given a time to run, and spent the summer betting on himself until he walked on to the team and earned a scholarship. These days he races marathons and makes running videos, and his wife, Mica, is a marathoner too. In April a panic attack at home turned his life upside down for a month, and he was diagnosed with panic disorder. We sat down in Chicago three days before the marathon, where he was chasing a time under 2:16 to qualify for the US Olympic Trials. I'm grateful he talked about all of it this openly. In this episode Adam and I discuss going from not getting recruited to chasing an Olympic Trials qualifier. What he does in a race when it hurts, and what he does when he loses focus. Pacing Mica through her first marathon. The anxiety that came with walking on. The panic attack in April, and getting his life back on track. A voice memo question from his wife Mica. A line he picked up about the two kinds of suffering. And the promise he made himself while he was in the thick of it. This episode touches on panic attacks, anxiety and mental health. If anything it brings up for you, Lifeline is 13 11 14. Free your team from time-consuming procurement tasks. Discover smart business buying, where unmatched selection meets AI-driven tools to simplify complex processes so you can focus on what matters most. Learn more at amazon.com.au/keegan If you enjoyed this you will also enjoy these #184 Alexi Pappas: How to Become Fearless & Why Shortcuts Are Poison: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTubeAn Olympic distance runner on the dip after her Games, and learning what mental health really was. #50 Tamika Upton: Newcastle Knights, Coping Strategies for Anxiety & Personal Preparation: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTubeTamika on the panic attacks she didn't have a name for at first. #157 The Psychology of Rumination | Why We Get Stuck on Negative Thoughts (& How to Break Free): Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Listen and subscribe:SpotifyApple PodcastsYouTube Follow for more:Podcast InstagramKeegan's InstagramTikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cam Bostock spent his teens inside. He was homeschooled, played video games all day and had social anxiety that followed him into his twenties. At about 19 he decided to change it: he got rid of the computer, started saying yes to invitations, and made himself walk up to strangers, which he says was the most terrifying thing he had ever done. A mate took him on three nights on the Bibbulmun Track and he was hooked. In 2020 COVID took his job and his apartment in Tokyo, so he went all in on filming hikes and didn't make any money for three years. Last year he set the unsupported record on the 1000 kilometre Bibbulmun. A bit over a week before we spoke he went back for the self-supported one, and at midnight on day one, 95 kilometres in, he stacked it five times on Mount Hallowell in the rain. He walked ten kilometres the next morning, then called it. In this episode Cam and I discuss that morning, the phone call to his wife Karis before he decided, and why a bloke who a couple of years ago would have dogged it out pulled the pin instead. We talk about why he started a podcast when he reckoned he was no good at holding a conversation. Then Dan and Emma, the two hikers he met on day one of the Pacific Crest Trail and walked 139 days with, and what suffering alongside strangers does to a friendship. I get his advice for anyone who has never slept outside,What his wife, Karis says to him on the phone when an attempt is falling apart, and what he leans on when he's out there alone. Free your team from time-consuming procurement tasks. Discover smart business buying, where unmatched selection meets AI-driven tools to simplify complex processes so you can focus on what matters most. Learn more at amazon.com.au/keegan For more just like this: #176 Jacqui Bell: Youngest Person to Run an Ultra on Every Continent: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTubeThe mate who introduced Cam and me. #131 Geoff Wilson: A Life of Adventure: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTubeGeoff telling the Antarctica storm story himself, which I don't do justice in this episode. #169 The Psychology of Green & Blue Spaces w/ Dr Megan Lee | Why Nature Changes Your Brain: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Listen and subscribe:SpotifyApple PodcastsYouTube Follow for more:Podcast InstagramKeegan's InstagramTikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Four days after our baby was born, I ran my version of the Sydney Marathon. It took me over four hours. Three weeks later I lined up in Berlin to run a sub 3:30. The only difference was how much I cared about the outcome. In this episode I get into why the effort we're willing to give changes from one race to the next. Jack Brehm and motivational intensity theory. Three weeks away from my family. Oliver Foran on doing it for something bigger than himself. Fear, and proving it to yourself. The shallow end and the deep end of the pool. What happened at 33 kilometres. A mate's line about wanting and paying. And a mountain you might not need to climb to the top of. Part one, The Wall Is In Your Head, and part two, Lowering the Effort, are both out now. This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks to DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show. Start with parts one and two: Why do we Quit? (Part 1) #209 Psychological Impacts on Physical Performance: The Wall Is In Your Head: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Why do we Quit? (Part 2) #213 Psychological Impacts on Physical Performance: Lowering the Effort: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube For more just like this: #189 Oliver Foran: Mount Everest World Record (Sea Level to Summit), Losing his Mum 16 & Finding His Why: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube #165 The Psychology of Finding your Why?: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube #160 Andy Buchanan: Finding Purpose In Running: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Letty Mortensen was a late bloomer. He turned pro by sending Rusty photo after photo for free until they put him on the team. Then he had a big injury three years running: his shoulder, a fractured tibia, and a hamstring torn off the bone. He was just getting back in the water when a board hit him in the temple and gave him a concussion, in the lead up to a boat trip through a military zone between Russia and Japan. He went anyway and had the adventure of a lifetime! In this episode Letty and I discuss that trip to the Kuril Islands, a 1200 kilometre chain of volcanic islands that Russia and Japan still fight over, the two locals who started surfing because of Travis Rice, and what it’s like trusting your life to a captain who had never run a surf charter. We talk about the day his hamstring came off the bone, the first thing that went through his head, and how you show a sponsor your value when you can’t surf. Then the concussion: the hour and a half he kept surfing after it, what happened at the butcher’s, the headaches that came back every time he trained, and everyone having an opinion on what he should do. We compare it with my own concussions from footy, and get into the fear of getting hurt again, why he has given up some of his airs, and going all in with no plan B. Free your team from time-consuming procurement tasks. Discover smart business buying, where unmatched selection meets AI-driven tools to simplify complex processes so you can focus on what matters most. Learn more at amazon.com.au/keegan Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok If you enjoyed this you will also enjoy these #124 Mark Mathews: Recreate the Fear · Apple · YouTube Letty names Mark twice in this episode, both times as the person who made him think differently about being scared of big waves. #168 World Champion Surfer Molly Picklum: How I Stopped Letting Fear Make My Decisions · Apple · YouTube The same question from the other end of the sport: what happens when you stop letting fear pick for you. #76 India Robinson: World Surf League, Burnout & Concussions · Apple · YouTube For the concussion stretch in the back half: another surfer on how little the sport knows about heads.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us already have something we reach for when a session gets hard. Music, a mate beside us, the odd swear word. I wanted to know which of them hold up in the research, and why. This is part two of a three part series on why we quit. In this episode I get into how to make the same effort feel lighter, and why none of it is a shortcut. The study that sorted songs by beats per minute. Music against podcasts in sprint intervals. Smiling through pain, and someone in a sausage outfit. What my footy coaches used to say to me every pre-season, and whether that voice is baggage or something real. A 2020 study on anger and fear before a run. Swearing and a bucket of ice water. And an Oxford rowing crew who did the same session together and alone. Part one, The Wall Is In Your Head, is out now. Part three, next week, is Raising the Willingness. The studies I mention: Terry et al. (2020), Effects of music in exercise and sport: a meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin Patania et al. (2020), The Psychophysiological Effects of Different Tempo Music on Endurance Versus High-Intensity Performances. Frontiers in Psychology Stork, Karageorghis & Martin Ginis (2019), Let's Go: Psychological, psychophysical, and physiological effects of music during sprint interval exercise. Psychology of Sport and Exercise Blanchfield et al. (2014), Talking yourself out of exhaustion: the effects of self-talk on endurance performance. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise Giles et al. (2020), When Anger Motivates: Approach States Selectively Influence Running Performance. Frontiers in Psychology Stephens, Atkins & Kingston (2009), Swearing as a response to pain. NeuroReport Stephens, Spierer & Katehis (2018), Effect of swearing on strength and power performance. Psychology of Sport and Exercise Cohen et al. (2010), Rowers' high: behavioural synchrony is correlated with elevated pain thresholds. Biology Letters This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks to DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show. Start with part one: Why do we Quit? (Part 1) #209 Psychological Impacts on Physical Performance: The Wall Is In Your Head: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube For more just like this: The Psychology of Smiling Through Pain | Episode 181: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube #160 Andy Buchanan: Finding Purpose In Running: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Listening to your shoes hit the ground in a pack comes from Andy. #172 Rob Dalto: Losing Dad, 38 Marathons & Building the Bronx Burners: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube The Bronx Burners is the run club Rob co-founded in New York. Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jake Taylor grew up in Sydney before moving to England on his own at 17 to play soccer. Now he's a content creator known for his signature running shot, bringing high-quality filmmaking to running content.A year ago he ran his first marathon, in Berlin. We recorded the day before this year's race, and I'm grateful he gave up some of that day to sit down with me.In this episode Jake and I discuss why he walked away from professional soccer at 24. What losing his wife Alex's dad did to his priorities. The stranger who ran past him in Copenhagen to say he was running because of Jake's video. How social media has made a sub-three marathon look normal, when it's far from it. The months of 300 views before anyone watched. And why he believes his best creative ideas come on a run. This episode touches on grief and mental health. If anything it brings up for you, Lifeline is 13 11 14. For more just like this: #144 Bailey O'Brien: Building The Life You Want: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube The episode Jake says got him following the show. #199 Eddie Hearn: What It Takes to Be Great, "You Will Never Outwork Me": Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Eddie on obsession and family, the conversation I bring up with Jake. #201 The Psychology of Obsession: A Healthy Dose, and When It Crosses the Line: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube The solo I mention recording just before Eddie came in. Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nick Pearce opened his first cafe a few days after his 19th birthday and spent the best part of 13 years in hospitality on the Gold Coast. He sold the cafe and the coffee roastery, and then last year set off around Australia in a caravan with his wife and three daughters. He cooked a recipe at every stop, and the cookbook that came out of it is out on pre-order now. In this episode Nick and I discuss what inspired the decision to travel around Australia. The careers counsellor who told him hospitality wasn't an option. Opening Blackboard at 19, and the experience of having 70 staff and $750k of debt. Why he sold. The story of scone boy, and what inspired him to share his cooking online. Taking his seven year old daughter spearfishing. Routine and ritual on the road with three kids. How a year in a caravan affected his marriage. And what he told the publisher who said nobody makes the book he wanted to make. This episode with Nick is supported by Dometic. If you want the best gear for your next outdoor adventure, head to Dometic. Buy Nick's book, Recipearce On The Road, on pre-order now: Pre-order Recipearce On The Road For more just like this: #196 Geoff Wilson: 1800km Across the Desert by Wind & Why Hard Times Make Good People: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube The mate I quote in this episode on building resilient kids. #170 Grace Grove: Doctor, Runner & Content Creator | Being Yourself & Ditching Toxic Productivity: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube The toxic productivity episode Nick mentions. #164 Jai Arrow: Fatherhood and What Really Matters: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Elliott Hagen hosts Mind Your Head, where he's been really open about his own mental health. A while back his wife Jordan gave him a choice, and he went and did the work. He's just become a dad, on the same day I did, so there was no better time to sit down together. Two new dads reflecting on learnings and life on no sleep. We get into the ultimatum his wife gave him a couple of years ago. Why he had never held a baby until he was 32. And why now was the time, after years of thinking he didn't possess "the qualities to make a good dad". This episode touches on suicidal thoughts and the death of a baby. If anything it brings up for you, Lifeline is 13 11 14. For more just like this: #186 Alexis Fernandez The Neuroscience of Connection, Creativity & Heartbreak: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube #131 Geoff Wilson: A Life of Adventure: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube The mentor Elliott and I go and see straight after this conversation. #185 Kori Sampson: You Can't Outthink Your Mental Health, Sobriety, ADHD & the Marathon Majors: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Elliott has a great podcast of his own. Go and listen to it too: Mind Your Head on Spotify Mind Your Head on Apple Podcasts Mind Your Head on Instagram Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.