This is Our Story

We have reached the final chapter! Bear with us as we take up a little more time than usual in order to cover six years' worth of stories.  We cover Kieran's post married adventures, including new relationships in the post-marriage era. We also discuss Briar's move 'home' to New Zealand and the settling down process which followed. We also allow some time to reflect on this self-therapising process and what it has meant to us.

The stage is set for the final moments in this particularly challenging chapter of Kieran's life. Be prepared for things to get a bit heavy as he shares a blow by blow account of how certain circumstances finally brought about an end to his relationship. He also discusses how his church journey simultaneously came to a sudden end.  

This week we begin to tackle a difficult and painful chapter in Kieran's story as we unpack the challenges of an unwinding relationship and his complete immersion in church related pursuits.  In quite the contrast, we also touch on Briar's new and happy chapter.  Other topics include some classic millennial whinging, home life distress, Godly callings, a new adventure, making unchurchy friends, and family trips.

We discuss Briar's transition out of single life into a period of healthy stability as Kieran moved into the mega church bubble in an effort to find meaning and distraction. Other topics include awkward family gifts, New York romps, cute online romances, family tragedies, reunions, church drama, and continuing home life challenges.

This week we continue chats about London adventures, and Briar talks about her new chapter of single life. We also cover life lessons, European travels, pregnancy scares, Facebook drama, work life, processing pain, online dating, and rebound relationships.

This episode plots the point where our paths once again converged in London, a time of extreme highs and lows. We are forced to confront old hurts never previously discussed, challenging the mantra that 'time heals all wounds'. We also dissect how we managed to navigate 'living the dream' whilst simultaneously living with the constant weight of unhappiness. We also chat childhood hobbies, hot/plastic models, penny hunting, cultural transitions, Anzac Day, being a mature student, London adventures, relationship strains and breakdowns, and other random musings.

This episode pulls apart our early married years and we discuss our first experiences navigating new lives in Australia. We also chat sickly sheep, pets, finishing uni, facing the big scary world, leaving NZ forever, megachurch life, drunken shenanigans, making big bucks, Australian culture shock, and more.

In this episode we explore more of Kieran's early relationship journey, and then we begin to delve into Briar's entry into married life. We also cover purity culture, WWJD, backsliding (shiver), new household rules, losing control, wild emotions, stressful car rides, risk management, changing personalities, leaving church, and more.

In this week's episode we discuss 'learning how to relationship' as we delve into Kieran's first and he begins to share things about this partnership never previously discussed. Things get a wee bit heavy as we talk first meetings, Christian dating culture, going through the motions, sexual awkwardness, insecurities, changing identities, weddings, and those big waving red flags.

The microphone pans over to Briar as we chat about her first couple of years experiencing new found freedom away from home. Other topics we cover are cringy musical moments, angels and demons, apocalypse obsessions, career choices, navigating a new city, living in an office, intense loneliness, inescapable rules, first relationship experiences, and more.

We are finally into the early adult years. This episode kicks off the chapter 'Branching Out' as we discuss Kieran's first year out of home.  We also cover nerdy Christian olympic activities, more crushes, choosing careers, awkward living situations, uncomfortable social interactions, failing uni, being uncool at church, doing life alone, and much more.

This week comes with a warning: We get a bit deep as Briar shares a deeply personal and traumatic story from her teenage years. We also touch on some rather awkward early relationship experiences. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, or triggered in any way, we encourage you to talk to someone who can help. We also cover other lighter subjects: tales of brother sister warfare, bread fiddling, and music festivals.

We bring on our first guest, Kieran's once-upon-a-time unrequited love Rachel, to help us remember more of the good times growing up in paradise/the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. We cover awkward crushes, orchard shenanigans, youth summer camps, retro computer games, mIRC, farm adventures, bangin' Christian tunes, terrible fashion, leaving church, going back 'home', insecurities and more.

The Teenage Years - Part Three In our second installment of Story Time we discuss amazing New Zealand family holiday adventures. We then focus on church memories from our mid-late teen years: travelling youth group outreach events, awkward confessions, a heavenly language, money matters, flying planes, sibling warfare, and more.

The Teenage Years - Part Two We introduce a new segment, 'Story time' - an opportunity to share fun anecdotes from yesteryear, and this week we discuss favourite hobbies and pastimes. We also reflect on early church memories, youth group, 'sex ed' and more.

The Teenage Years - Part One We dive into the early teenage years: discipline by spoon, tiny Christian school life, bullying, the beginnings of the church journey, escaping the evils of secular music (the Backstreet Boys), and other random musings.

And so the journey begins! It's a wee bit of a long one as we reflect on the first ten years of our lives. We chat growing up in the Far North of New Zealand, our earliest memories, farm life, dying country towns, race/class, family, adventuring, early school years, and more.

A short introduction to who we are alongside an explanation of what we hope to cover throughout this podcast series

The scene is set for our new and exciting project "This is Our Story".