It all starts here

Dom Harvey's award-winning podcast didn't start in a studio. It started at his dining room table, with about $1,500 of gear and no real plan beyond wanting better conversations than the ten-minute radio slots he'd spent two decades doing. In this conversation with host Vanessa Williams, Dom talks about that leap from The Edge breakfast show into long-form interviewing, the shift from playing a shock jock character to just being himself and how, even after more than 300 interviews, being a guest on a podcast terrifies him!Highlights•         Starting the podcast at his dining table, welcoming celebrities into his home and a water-blasting fail with Mitch James.•         Trading ten-minute radio slots for two-hour conversations, because, in his words, it's hard for someone to hide their true character for two hours.•         Growing up in a Palmerston North house that always smelled like the previous owners' homemade jam.•         “Even without a clear plan or a clear goal, if you start something and just keep going, it's amazing where you end up.”•         Moving from that dining table into his own studio as co-owner of PodLab, four and a half years and 300-plus interviews later.Timestamps [00:30] Meet Dom Harvey, and why being interviewed feels harder than interviewing[02:23] The two Palmerston North homes he grew up in[10:57] How the podcast started: no plan, just a dining table and $1,500 of gear[15:13] Recording on the coffee table at home, and what it felt like having guests walk through his house[21:57] What actually makes people open up over a two-hour conversation[25:26] Buying his first home in Awapuni at 22[29:05] Advice to young Dom[30:34] The Lotto dream, and buying his mum an apartment in her 70sGuest bioDom Harvey is one of New Zealand's most experienced broadcasters and the host of The Dom Harvey Podcast. After almost 30 years in commercial radio, including 20 years hosting the nationwide breakfast show on “The Edge”, Dom launched his podcast in 2022 and has since interviewed over 300 of New Zealand's most interesting figures from sport, business, entertainment and public life. He has also written 3 best-selling books, and when he is not talking or writing, you'll find him out running.Host bioVanessa Williams, General Manager -Customer, realestate.co.nz. Vanessa is one of New Zealand's most trusted voices on property, at home unpacking market data for industry audiences and translating it into practical guidance for everyday buyers and sellers. She regularly appears across national television, radio, print and digital media. Her commentary combines the extensive listings, search and market data held by realestate.co.nz.Linksdom.co.nzpodlab.co.nzThe two Palmerston North properties Dom mentioned:·        25 Haast Place, Awapuni, Palmerston North·        115 Long Melford Road, AwapuniIf Dom's dining-table beginnings prove you don't need a studio, or a plan, to start something big, follow It all starts here wherever you get your podcasts.

Michelle Dickinson's school grades were bad enough that, by her own account, she shouldn't have made it to university. She got there anyway.In this conversation, host Vanessa Williams talks with Dr Michelle Dickinson, known to many as Nanogirl, about why home was the best school she ever had. It traces back to her early years as a military kid who never really felt she had a home of her own, right through to buying and renovating her very first home, brick by brick, at 18, while working three jobs at once.She also shares how she's helping her preschool twins, raised in Cantonese, English and te reo Māori, learn at home for a world AI is already reshaping.HighlightsAt eight, her dad handed her a soldering iron and she burned her fingers finding out how it worked. It's the moment she still traces her whole career back to.Military housing meant no posters, no say in the paint colour, and a move every two to three years with just a few belongings. Her favourite posting was a Hong Kong apartment ringed by wild monkeys.She was teaching piano at 14, washing bar glasses at 16, then waitressing and folding T-shirts in a sports store, often three or four jobs at once, all to save for a home.At 18, she bought a derelict London terrace for £50,000 and rebuilt it herself. Halfway through knocking out a wall, she discovered she was allergic to the horsehair in its Victorian-era mortar.She paid her way through it all, working three or four jobs at once. She restored, rather than replaced, the 100-year-old villa she lives in now, rebuilt around a 6'9" husband, twin toddlers, and a garden they harvest from every morning.She's raising her own twins on that same curiosity, rather than instant answers, now that she's working at the frontier of an AI-shaped world herself.Timestamps [00:45] Meet Dr Michelle Dickinson, Nanogirl, and the soldering iron and rootless childhood that shaped her[01:21] Growing up a military kid: no home to call her own, and a single box carried from posting to posting[06:36] Favourite childhood home: an apartment in Hong Kong's New Territories, with wild monkeys next door[10:12] Buying her first home at 18: renovating it herself, brick by brick, and an unplanned horsehair allergy[17:22] Getting into university through the UK's "Clearing" system, despite grades that said she shouldn't have gone[25:07] Home now: restoring a 100-year-old Auckland villa around her family[28:05] Why home is "the best school": the soldering iron story, and raising her twins the same way in an AI-shaped world[31:38] The Lotto dream, a public science garden, and advice to her younger selfGuest bioDr Michelle Dickinson, known to many as Nanogirl, is a nanotechnologist, materials engineer and bestselling author who has spent her career making science something everyone can get their hands on. After years of building STEM programmes that reached millions of Kiwi kids, she now splits her life between New Zealand and Silicon Valley, where she works at the frontier of physical AI and robotics: the technology teaching machines to see, learn and work alongside people in factories and workshops around the world. Whether she’s in a lab, on a stage, or out on the water kitesurfing, Michelle stays endlessly curious about how technology can help us build the future we actually want to live in.Host bioVanessa Williams, General Manager -Customer, realestate.co.nz. Vanessa is one of New Zealand's most trusted voices on property, at home unpacking market data for industry audiences and translating it into practical guidance for everyday buyers and sellers. She regularly appears across national television, radio, print and digital media. Her commentary combines the extensive listings, search and market data held by realestate.co.nz.LinksMichelle Dickinson Instagram | Facebook | LinkedInThe Kitchen Science Cookbook by Dr Michelle Dickinson

Welcome to It all starts here, with realestate.co.nz.Since 1996, even before Google, we've been helping New Zealanders find their perfect property. That's thirty years of open homes, first mortgages and sold signs.But this podcast isn't about the sale. It's about what happens after the sold sign comes down, once the boxes are unpacked and the house turns into a home. Because so much starts there.On this podcast, we sit down at the table with someone who has a story to talk about what started at home for them.