We’re half way through the year and “dry July” is underway. So what better time to talk about health, nutrition and diet?

In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 66, our guest is Professor Caryn Zinn, Professor of Nutrition at Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

Her story starts in South Africa, where she was born, and her early University studies were conducted in Cape Town. Upon graduation, she moved to New Zealand for what she thought would be a period of time. But it was to become her life.

Her first job here was as a public health dietician in Whangarei, but academia called and a Master’s degree focusing on Sports Nutrition and a PhD centred on weight loss followed.

A chance engagement in 2014, challenged her conventional nutrition paradigm, and she developed her own nutrition philosophy in light of the emerging science on insulin resistance and metabolic health. Her journey endured multiple challenges from the change resistant establishment, but her conviction ensured that she prevailed. She is now regarded as one of the most recognised leaders in therapeutic carbohydrate reduction, both in New Zealand and abroad.

Professor Zinn speaks openly about the challenges of leading pioneering change in a sector that often prefers the comfortable route. But her story is compelling and like any scientist who “follows the evidence” her approach is now well accepted.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, Caryn Zinn speaks to Bruce Cotterill about how a team effort led to the publication of not one, but five books resulting from their research, including the highly regarded “What the Fat?” Her writing has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers around the world to the low-carb, healthy-fat way of eating.

There is plenty of discussion about what’s right and wrong with our diets, how we can be better, and how to get help if we need it. There’s also an interesting discussion about how supplements can support our lifestyles and some common sense advice around alcohol consumption.

But most of all, this is a story about a high achiever who dared to believe that another way was possible, and in fact better, and who committed herself to changing attitudes and outcomes in a world challenged by change.

Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 66 with Bruce Cotterill and Professor Caryn Zinn

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In episode 65 of the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, our guest is the veteran Political Journalist Barry Soper.

Barry Soper is our most seasoned, and arguably most respected political correspondent. He’s covered the premierships of twelve Prime Ministers, all of them very different, across five decades.

It’s a story worthy of a book, and his newly released political memoir entitled “One Last Question, Prime Minister” doesn’t disappoint.

But his life could have been so different. When he pulled out of Police College in his late teens, his mother had a job lined up for him, as a tractor salesman. But an accidental conversation with a correspondent from the local paper, changed his trajectory and his fortunes and a lifetime in journalism was born.

He went on to work with many of the provincial newspapers across the country, and after an OE full of stories that only a man of his experience can tell, he returned to a broadcasting career that continues to this day.

On the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, Barry talks to Bruce Cotterill about all twelve of those Prime Ministers. His role has enabled him to get to know them all well, he’s travelled with them, and seen them up close in electoral victory and defeat.

He shares those experiences openly, and with a sense of humour that only the best story tellers can deliver. You might expect him to have strong and well informed views on some of our best and worst Prime Ministers. You might not expect him to be so open in sharing those views.

As this election year gathers steam, this is an opportunity to hear from a man who has been as close to the political action as it’s possible to be. It’s a insightful analysis of the progress this country has made over the last fifty years, and the people who have led us.

The book again. “One Last Question, Prime Minister” by Barry Soper.

Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 65 with Bruce Cotterill and Barry Soper, Newstalk ZB’s Senior Political Correspondent.

Download it here.

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What does it take to help build world champions?

In Episode 64 of Leaders Getting Coffee, Bruce Cotterill sits down with David Abercrombie – former All Blacks physiotherapist, former CEO of Yachting New Zealand, and one of the people who has worked behind the scenes of some of New Zealand's greatest sporting achievements.

Over a Physiotherapy career spanning more than three decades, David has treated elite athletes across rugby, sailing, basketball and Olympic sport. He was part of the All Blacks environment during one of the most successful eras in New Zealand rugby and worked alongside some of the country's most iconic sporting figures. He was on the spot for, Michael Jones injured knee, Zinzan Brooke’s famous dropped goal, and he kept Sir Peter Blake’s elbows working in San Diego. Four medals in one day’s sailing at the Rio Olympics remains a special memory.

Born in Scotland and raised on Auckland's North Shore, David's journey took him from a young physiotherapist helping establish North Harbour Rugby's sports medicine programme alongside his great mate Dr John Mayhew, to becoming one of the most respected practitioners in New Zealand sport. Later, when the physical demands of physiotherapy forced an unexpected career change, he successfully reinvented himself as CEO of Yachting New Zealand, leading that organisation through 15 years of transformation and Olympic success.

In the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, David shares remarkable stories from inside the All Blacks, the America's Cup and New Zealand's Olympic sailing programme. He reflects on the pressure of elite performance, the evolution of professional sport, and how the sport of sailing is changing with the introduction of foiling, women joining men’s crews, the rise of SailGP, and the leadership lessons learned from working with some of the world's best athletes and teams.

This is a conversation about far more than sport. It's about excellence, resilience, reinvention and what it really takes to perform at the highest level.

If you love sports, you’ll enjoy this conversation. But it’s much more than what happens on the field or in front of the TV camera. David Abercrombie brings a genuine insight to our sporting stories and a behind the scenes glimpse into the factors behind sporting success.

Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 64 with Bruce Cotterill and David Abercrombie.

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