Layne Beachley is a surfing legend. Seven world titles. Six of them back to back — a record nobody in the sport, male or female, has ever come close to touching. But the real story is everything inside, out and in between.

Adopted at birth, and later learning the truth of how she was conceived, Layne spent years quietly deciding she'd only be lovable if she became a champion at something. In this episode we go deep on tall poppy syndrome, the sixth world title that broke her body completely, the phone call from her birth mother that flipped her life over in five minutes and how she turned every single setback into fuel.

Today she's a fierce advocate for equality in sport, a champion for mental wellness, and a proud ambassador for The Black Dog Institute, R U OK? Day and Gotcha4Life. She's also co-founder of Awake Academy, where she helps individuals and organisations reclaim their energy, resilience and purpose.

This one is raw, hilarious, and full of what she calls "Laneisms" — one-liners you'll absolutely want to adopt.

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

📲 Find Awake Academy at awakeacademy.com.au

📲 Follow Layne: @laynebeachley on Instagram

📲 Follow Anita: @hi.itsanita on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Hit follow so you never miss an episode.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wesley Senna Cortes was one of three leads on the final season of The Bachelor Australia, and trust me, there's a lot more to him than what made the final cut.

We get into the moment reality TV producers asked him for his "character trajectory" (yep, that's a real thing they say), what it actually cost him mentally to come back from filming, and a casting director scandal he ended up blowing wide open.

We also spoke about his fight to stay in this country, what nobody tells you about the visa system, and the phone call that changed his life before any of this even started.

This one's funny, it's heavy, and it's nothing like the guy you think you remember from TV.

Hit follow so you never miss an episode of The Anita Podcast, and come find me at hi.itsanita on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Quick Hit episode, Anita sits down with Steve Toussaint from HBO's House of the Dragon.

In town to promote Season 3, we chat about the wigs that turn him into Corlys Velaryon, imposter syndrome, and the film he just wrote that changed everything.

We also got real about his acting process, what it costs to stay vulnerable, and what he's learned in his 30 year career.

Our chat was only 10 minutes but it packed a huge punch!

Subscribe to The Anita Podcast wherever you listen and follow @hi.itsanita on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for more.

Follow Steve @thegenuinetoussaint

Season 3 of HBO's House of the Dragon is now streaming on HBO Max.

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This is the first Culture Deep Dive on The Anita Podcast

Trigger warning: This episode contains detailed discussion of murder, pregnancy loss, infant death, and graphic crime scene details. Listener discretion is advised.

If you've watched Netflix's Maternal Instinct — or lived through the phenomenon that was The Crash — you already know how deep a true crime documentary can get under your skin. Maternal Instinct got under mine.

The fake pregnancy. The forged documents. The silicone baby bump. The gender reveal. Ten months of a lie so elaborate it's almost impossible to comprehend.

But the question that really got me wasn't how she did it.

It was: did Taylor Parker actually believe her own lies?

In this episode I go deep on the Taylor Parker case — the full story, the psychology underneath it, and the details the documentary doesn't fully unpack. Then I'm joined by Gary Fahey — the man who ran the Australian Prime Minister's Protection Team and the Office of the AFP Commissioner, holds a Masters in Brain and Mind Sciences, and is currently doing a PhD in conscious decision making and identity-based psychology. Gary also has lived experience of exactly what it looks like when a person's internal world completely breaks down.

We get into Taylor's brain — literally. The frontal lobe dysfunction. The atrophy. The clinical term that might change how you think about everything she did.

⏱ Already watched the documentary? Skip to Gary's interview — timecode: 17:44:10.

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the full episode on YouTube.

📲 Find Gary at garyfahey.com

📲 Follow Anita: @hi.itsanita on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube

📌 Fact check — Gary mentioned ghrelin: Ghrelin is the hormone that signals hunger. It rises when your stomach is empty and drops when you're full — an inverse response. It's one of the key hormones that regulates appetite and is heavily studied in the context of addiction, compulsive behaviour and reward-seeking.

#MaternalInstinct #Netflix #TaylorParker #TrueCrime #TrueCrimeAustralia #TheAnitaPodcast #CultureDeepDive #GaryFahey #AustralianPodcast #TrueCrimePodcast #ReaganSimmonsHancock #Psychology #Netflix2026 #TheCrash #EntertainmentInterview

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⚠️ This episode contains adult themes and language. Not one for the kids. ⚠️

Josh Partington started posting comedy content in August 2024. Within months he had over a hundred thousand followers and four million views on a single video.

In this episode of The Anita Podcast, Anita sits down with the Melbourne-based content creator behind @keepingitjosh — the TikTok account making Australians feel deeply seen, wildly nostalgic, and absolutely certain they grew up in the same house.

He was a self-confessed "background character" at school. Tried uni, lasted four weeks. Bounced between jobs he couldn't sit still in. Then one night his girlfriend said you should just post comedy videos — and everything changed.

We also get into the teen social media ban, why finding out 68% of his audience are women completely floored him, and the personal moment that made him realise life is too short not to back yourself.

Oh, and we finally find out whether Josh is actually a teacher. The internet has been asking. He answers.

This one is funny, surprisingly deep, and goes places you won't expect. A big conversation with a guy who's only just getting started.

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

📲 Follow Josh: @keepingitjosh on TikTok · @joshparto on Instagram

📲 Follow Anita: @hi.itsanita on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube

#JoshPartington #keepingitjosh #TheAnitaPodcast #AustralianPodcast #ContentCreator #TikTokAustralia #AustralianContentCreator #PodcastAustralia #CreatorSeries

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She wanted to be the next James Nachtwey. She ended up being the internet's favourite pop culture girl. And honestly? We think she won.

Aicha Robertson — fashion blogger, beauty creator, movie critic, and pop culture commentator behind The Fashion Heist and now Aichark — is the very first guest in The Anita Podcast's content creator series. And she did not come to play.

We talk about what Aicha Robertson actually studied at uni (yes, she has a journalism degree, sort of), the Brisbane fashion show that changed her entire trajectory, the Blogspot that no longer exists (RIP, genuinely), and how COVID accidentally built her a whole new career in movies and pop culture content.

We get into Australian Idol, the Netflix Bridgerton gig, what it really takes to build something real in an industry that makes it look effortless, and the version of Aicha the world hasn't seen yet — but absolutely should.

Also: she's a hypochondriac who gives herself diseases after watching medical dramas and dreams of doing Cabaret on Broadway. So there's that.

This one is warm, real, and a little unhinged in the best way. Grab your headphones. 🎧

Follow Aicha → @aicharkk Listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes dropping Wednesdays.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before he was third billing on Paramount+'s Dutton Ranch alongside Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser, Finn Little was a softly spoken kid from Brisbane who liked fishing in the river, was obsessed with magic, and had no idea that a School Zone TV commercial at age five would lead to sharing a set with some of the greatest actors of our generation.

Geoffrey Rush. Angelina Jolie. Nicolas Cage. Kevin Costner. Annette Bening. Ed Harris. All before turning 20.

We talk about growing up on set instead of in a classroom, what Taylor Sheridan said when he called to tell Finn he'd written Carter specifically for him, the horse he rode for years that he still misses, the hat he never got to keep, and the phone call that changed absolutely everything.

He doesn't love talking about himself, which turned into something so pure! Love it!

Dutton Ranch is streaming now on Paramount+. But first — meet the kid from Brisbane.

Dutton Ranch premiered with two episodes on Friday, 15 May with new episodes dropping weekly!

🎧 Watch the Dutton Ranch official trailer: here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

⚠️ Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussion of domestic violence, coercive control, emotional abuse, financial abuse, and intergenerational trauma. Please take care of yourself while listening. If you or someone you know needs support, contact the 1800RESPECT national helpline on 1800 737 732 — available 24/7.

This episode is not suitable for kids.

I sat down with Jasmin Tarasin — director of the stunning new Australian film Life Could Be a Dream — and I was not prepared for how deeply personal this conversation would become. For both of us.

Life Could Be a Dream follows Sarah, a forty-year-old woman navigating her way out of a coercive marriage while trying to model strength for her teenage son. It's a film about emotional abuse, shame, survival, and what it actually takes to start over. Starring Maeve Dermody and Alexander England, with Jasmin's own son Sonny McGee in a breakthrough performance.

We talk about why coercive control is so hard to see from the inside, why women don't ask for help, and why the most dangerous version of an abuser is the charming one. We also get into the unique and delicate dynamic between single mothers and their sons during adolescence — and what we owe our kids when it comes to modelling what healthy love actually looks like.

Jasmin grew up witnessing multigenerational domestic violence firsthand. This film is personal. And it shows in every frame.

And my key takeaway from Jasmin? The fairytale we were sold since childhood — the one about being rescued, being completed, being kept — it's the very thing that can keep us trapped. Rewriting that story takes courage. But it's possible. And it starts with knowing what to look for.

In this episode:

• What coercive control really looks like in middle and upper-class relationships — and why it stays invisible
• The Jekyll-and-Hyde dynamic of the charming abuser and why it's more terrifying than physical violence
• How children absorb toxic behaviour without knowing it's wrong
• The shame that stops women from asking for help
• Why financial independence is one of the most radical acts of self-protection
• The impact campaign partnering with CommBank Next Chapter and The Man Cave
• The phone call that changed Jasmin's life

About the film: Life Could Be a Dream is in cinemas now through Palace Cinemas. $1 from every ticket sold goes directly to The Man Cave — Australia's leading preventative mental health charity for young men.

CommBank Next Chapter supports people across Australia experiencing financial abuse. commbank.com.au/nextchapter

The Man Cave: themancave.com.au

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