Planting Seeds Podcast

You can be giving everyone the best of you AND still be running on empty.
What happens when you finally choose yourself — and why that took courage for Nepia Takuira-Mita?
Nepia Takuira-Mita is an actor, musician, and creative — known for his work on Ahikāroa, one of Aotearoa's first bilingual dramas. But before the screens and the stages, there was a kid raised on te reo Māori, kapa haka, and books, in a home with no TV, guided by parents who had the vision and courage to choose identity over convenience.
In this kōrero, Nepia opens up about the season he's currently navigating: sobriety, intentionality, and the confronting work of turning his manaakitanga inward. He talks about learning to show up for himself, not instead of his whānau, BUT so he can show up better for them.
This is a conversation about identity, creative purpose, what it means to be raised Māori in a world that doesn't always make that easy, and the quiet courage of choosing growth.
Episode Breakdown
Nepia's season of growth: sobriety, intentionality, and leaving alcohol on the table for something better
Manaakitanga as a value that can turn into people-pleasing and how to reclaim it for yourself
How a childhood without TV ironically led him to become a TV actor
Insight into acting: theatre vs. film, intimacy coaches, and falling in love with storytelling on stage
Landing the role on Ahikāroa, and what it meant to be part of Aotearoa's first bilingual drama
The gap between what you post and how you actually feel, the cost of the grind
Learning to ask for help, lean on people, and stop burning out quietly
Writing and performing "Lean On Me" AND the healing that came from singing it for the first time
Māori men, mental health, and finding ways to build momentum when life gets hard
What drives him now: his babies, his partner, his whānau, and showing up for himself first

Episode Links
🌿 Planting Seeds Community: www.skool.com/seeds-of-self💛 Support this episode with Bio Gold: use code SEEDS15 here

What if the reason you can't get to where you want to go… isn't about what you're doing but who you're being?
It took me half a year to learn this lesson. And one simple shift at 4:15am changed everything.
This is a Grow With Me solo episode, coming straight off the back of our brother-to-brother wānanga where tāne came together in person after 12 weeks of journeying online.
I'm sharing three things in this kōrero:
The teachings that came through the wānanga — clarity, the subconscious mind, and how the weeds we never planted are still running our lives. The honest, real-time experience of the post-wānanga come-down (yes, I popped off at the tamariki and what that taught me). And the framework that's changed my entire year: What / How / Who — and why focusing on who you need to become is the only thing that actually moves the needle.
This one's for the Tāne who showed up, for anyone in service mode whose cup is drained, and for everyone in the Planting Seeds whānau who's stepping out of old paths into something more aligned 🌱

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
✨ The brother-to-brother wānanga✨ Why the weeds in your subconscious mind aren't yours✨ How "internal safety" changes the way you show up✨ The honest truth about the post-wānanga come-down✨ Keeping your energy in — the discipline of grace when your cup is drained✨ The What / How / Who framework that changed everything✨ Why waking up at 4:15am unlocked a year of alignment✨ The one simple action hidden in every transformation

🔗 LINKS SECTION🌿 Bio Gold Use code SEEDS15 at checkout for 15% off → HERE🌱 Planting Seeds Community Weekly calls, wānanga & like-minded whānau — $49/month → HERE

What if the system that's meant to heal us is actually the thing keeping our whānau sick?
Dr Nina Scott has spent six years fighting for something basic: a seat at the table for Māori in cancer care. And the government still said no.
In this kōrero recorded at the World Indigenous Cancer Conference in Aotearoa, I sit down with Dr Nina Scott — one of the most respected Māori health leaders in this country, and a global voice for Indigenous cancer equity.
We get into the hard stuff: the bowel screening kaupapa that could have saved Māori and Pasifika lives, the political decisions made for votes instead of whānau, Big Tobacco and Big Food's grip on our communities, and the deep mahi being done to reconnect with our whenua, our kai, and our own sovereignty.
This conversation matters because it's not just about cancer. It's about how decisions made in offices we'll never sit in are shaping the wellbeing of generations to come — and what we can do about it from where we stand.

Episode Breakdown
✨ Why a "seat at the table" is the most basic ask — and still being denied✨ The bowel screening decision that's costing Māori lives✨ Why most Māori bowel cancers are diagnosed before age 60 — and why screening starts at 58✨ How Big Tobacco and Big Food are repeating the same playbook on our whānau✨ Whiri — the kaupapa navigator programme transforming how whānau receive cancer care✨ Why our health system treats us as broken parts, not whole people✨ Looking after whānau as the maximising whole-of-game

🔗 Episode LinksMore on Dr Nina Scott: https://www.heiahurumowai.org.nz/nina-bio🙏 Te Rau Ora: ⁠https://terauora.com/🎗 Hei Āhuru Mōwai:⁠ https://www.heiahurumowai.org.nz/🌱 Planting Seeds Community: ⁠⁠https://www.skool.com/seeds-of-self

In this episode I sit down with Professor Jason Gurney, epidemiologist, researcher, and author of The Twisted Chain, to unpack one of the most uncomfortable truths in Aotearoa: that the health outcomes for Māori aren't a story of personal failure. They're a story of systems.

Jason's work studies the causes, patterns and spread of disease across populations and the data tells a story most of us were never taught. From colonisation, to where vape shops and fast food outlets are deliberately placed, to alcohol availability in our communities.

But this kōrero isn't doom. Jason carries an optimism that lifted me up. He sees how far we've come, and where we're headed, and he reminds us that change is already happening.

Episode Breakdown
✨ Why responsibility for Māori health sits at a systems level, not just individual✨ How vape, alcohol and fast food stores are strategically located in our communities✨ What being an epidemiologist actually means.✨ The hidden patterns behind Māori cancer outcomes✨ Why Jason remains optimistic about where we're headed✨ Practical reflections for making better hauora decisions

This conversation is about identity, agency, and reclaiming the story of our health. It's about understanding the bigger picture so we can stop carrying shame that was never ours to begin with, and step into informed, empowered choices for ourselves, our whānau and the generations coming through.

Hauora isn't just a personal journey. It's a collective one.

🔗 Episode Links
📚 Jason's pukapuka: The Twisted Chain🙏 Te Rau Ora: HERE🎗 Hei Āhuru Mōwai: HERE
🌱 Seeds of Self: ⁠HERE

What got you here . . .won't keep you here.The old version of me was quietly running the show AND I almost didn't catch it.
This is a Grow With Me episode, just you and me, no guest, raw and reflective. From my 34th birthday to my 35th, I made a commitment to ask myself one simple question every single day in my journal: "What will I embody today?"
It's been the most grounding, identity-shifting practice I've done in a long time. But on this run of blessings and momentum, I noticed something . . . old habits, old language, old thinking trying to pull me back into a version of me I've already outgrown.

Episode Breakdown
✨ The daily journal practice anchoring my year
✨ The daily "What will I embody today?" question.
✨ How "I'm busy" and "I'm full on" became sneaky permission slips
✨ Catching the old identity before it sabotages the new
✨ Why growth isn't becoming someone new, it's returning
✨ Staying aligned with the energy that got you here

🔗 LINKS
🌱 Planting Seeds Community: HERE
🟡 Bio Gold (Sponsor) – Use code SEEDS15: HERE