Straight Talk with Mark Bouris

Alex Volkanovski walked into Mark's studio years ago with no idea what his brand was. Now he's a former UFC featherweight world champion, part-owner of a fight gear company, building a media presence through Cooking with Volk, and defending his belt at 38 — by choice, not necessity. This is a conversation about identity, purpose, and what happens when elite athletes build something that lasts beyond the sport. Volk is as calculated in business as he is in the octagon, and this conversation proves it. For more content like this:
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Executive Producer: Samuel Morgan
Head of Production: Jonah Mclachlan
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Johnathan Thurston didn't make the Broncos academy as a kid — and that rejection lit a fire that carried him to four Dally M Medals, three Golden Boots, and the most iconic grand final moment in NRL history. But this conversation goes well beyond football. JT breaks down the chess match inside rugby league in a way you've never heard before — body language reads, defensive line manipulation, kicking routines under grand final pressure. And then he talks about the work he's doing now, pulling kids away from the justice system and back into school, one program at a time. This is what a champion actually looks like when the jersey comes off.
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Two journalists from The Australian spent years digging into the real story behind tech giant Atlassian, and turned it into a book.
It traces how two UNSW graduates built a global software company from a Glebe share house into a NASDAQ listed giant worth more than $100 billion at its peak. Along the way, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar became best men at each other's weddings and eventually bought mansions next door to each other in Point Piper.
But the book also uncovers how internal tensions, diverging lifestyles and a neighbourhood renovation dispute ultimately drove a wedge between them, turning one of Australia's greatest business partnerships into one of its most quietly broken.
Purchase the book here: https://harpercollins.com.au/products/9781460769492
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James Tedesco has won grand finals, captained his state and country, and collected more Jack Gibson Medals than anyone in Roosters history. But what drives a man who's already achieved everything rugby league has to offer? In this episode of Straight Talk, Teddy discusses the self-doubt that never goes away, the mindset work he's done since 2015, and the brutal discipline of consistency that separates the talented from the great.
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Konrad Benjamin is the creator of Punters Politics, one of Australia's fastest-growing independent political commentary channels, and a former economics and PE teacher who taught across Victoria, New South Wales and China. In this episode, he sits down with me to dissect the incentive structures that shape Australian politics, corporate power and the housing crisis. The conversation moves from classroom economics to gas royalties, corporate lobbying, the staffer-to-lobbyist pipeline, and what a genuine fix might actually look like.
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