Dr Huhana Hickey has faced obstacles that would overwhelm many, yet retains a sunny outlook on life that inspires others. However, it took years of struggle before she found the inner strength to turn her life around. “I lived life, but I wasn’t living a life.”
 A high school drop out raised in an adoptive family where she was never expected to achieve, she experienced heartache and struggle before she found the inner strength to turn her life around.
Dr Hu, as she is known to her friends shares with Mike King and Dr Codyre how discovering that her youngest son had ADHD and dyslexia led to her own diagnosis. After he begged to come off medication, the pair underwent behaviour modification therapy together.
“If I was going to do it for my son, I needed to do it for me, and as a result we have never looked back.”
Huhana gained a BA, masters in law with distinction and a PhD. While studying she managed a progressive disability, multiple operations, brain injury and raised a disabled son.
“When Dr Hu came into the studio, we had to figure out how to squeeze her electric wheelchair into the tight space we work in, says series director Marcus Clayton. “It seemed to be a neat analogy of how Dr Hu has managed, against, the odds to make her place in the world when so much has been against her, and with enough story to fill an hour for the show. It is inspiring, funny, tragic stuff: we learned a lot that night.”

Filmmaker, musician and blogger Christopher Banks joins Mike King and Dr David Codyre to talk about life as a gay man, his art and living with bipolar disorder.

Coming from a Catholic background and subjected to bullying at high school, Chris spent his twenties trying to come to terms with his identity. Only when he was diagnosed as bipolar was he able to understand the depression he had grappled with throughout his life. Today he uses his creativity as a way to share his insight on social issues and sexual identify through documentaries and short films. View replay here

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Vic Tamati is one of the faces of domestic violence prevention in New Zealand. The one time abusive husband and father shares his very personal story of the recognition of his problem and his redemption with Mike King and Dr David Codyre.

View the replay here

Mike King asked Vic to join them at The Nutters Club RadioLIVE studio after hearing him speak at a men’s health clinic in Rawene. “I was blown away by the unique way that Vic was able to engage men and get them to take ownership of their problems,” Mike says.

But Vic’s story is a hard one to listen to and tell, as he recounts bashing his youngest daughter when she was eight – and how she became the one to turn his life around after his wife took the children and fled his violence. Continue reading →