Talkin Tough

“I lost my first good mate at 18 to suicide.... There’s been seven all up now, suicides... all of them close mates."

'Tully’ tears into the studio from outback New South Wales and has a chat with Mike and Ben about riding the rollercoaster of life and his connection to suicide. Staying in check with his own mental health has been huge for him since the start of adulthood when he lost his close mate to suicide and unfortunately has...

“I remember going back to school and I remember sitting there, looking at everyone, and going ‘why has this happened to me?” Life is easy for these people. Who have I pissed off? Why is my life so bloody hard.”

A mate of the boys this week rolls in for a few yarns about life.Stu Foy had to grow up quick as an only child, from fighting the frontline of the black Saturday bushfires at 13 years old, then losing his mum not long after...

“I just had these walls up, these really big walls, relationships with people were challenging for me and I just knew they should have been better”

Tiff made the call to jump into the boxing ring and start fighting! She loved it but she didn’t realise at the time, that decision and her love of copping a whack to the chin was closely connected to numbing a whole heap of pain from the past.T

iff Cooke is tough in a lot of ways but ...

“Everyone asked me 'How’s things?', 'Yeah I’m good' when really, I wasn’t.”

Tradie, cancer survivor and athlete,Josh Robson joins Mike & Ben behind the mic this episode to share how his version of tough was rocked by a sudden diagnosis of testicular cancer. Now he likes to go by ‘Robbie One Nut’ and that self appointed nickname alone,says a lot about this blokes mindset. Josh shares with us some of his highest highs, lowest lo...

“That was the lowest moment in my life, I’m in a much better headspace now to look after myself and I’m the happiest version of myself that I could ever be. But, I still have those thoughts.”

This episode, the fellas chat with mental health advocate, Mick Donehue.The thing about Mick is he is your typical country bloke who grew up with a solid family, plenty of mates, loved playing footy and living life to the fullest or at least ...

“The thing that I had to really come to terms with was I would go to bed every night a quad, wake up a quad and everyone else’s life would just roll on.”

Join the fellas as they chat with Joel Sardi, a great guy who became a Quadriplegic after an unfortunate accident at the pub one night with the boys. Joel speaks openly & honestly about the challenges he has faced since his life changed in an instant. From losing his independ...

“What people didn’t know, and I hadn’t told anyone for 20 years, was that I’d lost my brother to suicide. But what they did know was ‘Watty’s mad onskiing’...so I just said ‘Yep, I’ll go for a ski’”

The boys have the honor of having a yarn with one of the founding Ski ForLife members, Tim “Watty” Watt. Watty shares with the fellas his experience of losing his brother to suicide over two decades ago but how it still rocks him regul...

“Then I just burst into tears for the first time since losing my eyesight. I recognised from that day the power of speaking up & how important it is to let other people in.”

In this episode of Talkin Tough Ben is in the firing line as Mike asks the tough questions and together they relive his experience of losing his eyesight overnight at age 16 due to a rare genetic disorder, Lebers Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. Ben has now li...

“There were times I wanted to go back to the way things were. But eventually, there was a focus on self and reclaiming some sort of identity”

This week on Talkin Tough, Ben is in charge of the hard hitting questions and interviews his co host, Mike “Legless” Rolls. This chat unpacks Mikes experience of navigating life before, during and after surviving meningococcal septicemia at 18 years old. Over a decade on from this life chang...

What do you get when a legless lad & a blind bloke walk in to a bar? A couple of mates on a mission to challenge what it means to be "tough".

Join in on the very first of many conversations Mike & Ben share as they redefine what it means to be tough and let’s change the narrative when it comes to mental health & wellbeing.

If this Talkin Tough episode has struck a chord with you and you could do with some extra suppor...