Life Uncut - Bullying the bully? - Talking resilience with Turia Pit

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

Lovers and Lifers, it's our favourite day of the week!Today we're jumping into some real talk with the incredible Turia Pitt! But before we do that, we want to address some of the stuff going down on social media at the moment regarding the bullying and trolling of reality TV 'villains.'Where do we draw the line??We're talking pile ons, and when does the punishment outweigh the crime?We are then joined by the incredible Turia Pitt.While competing in a 100km ultra marathon in the Kimberely region of NT in 2011, Turia encountered an out of control grassfire. Trapped by the flames, she suffered burns to 65% of her body.Turia went against the odds, surviving the fire and facing the next challenges head on. She’s gone on to write three best-selling books, coach over 40,000 people, be a motivational speaker, compete in the Ironman World Championships, walk the Kokoda Trek, build a business and mother 2 children.In this chat we speak about expectations and the happiness trap.We speak about her partner and the guilt she felt towards him.We also chat about the little things that we can do in our everyday lives to feel more successful and a sense of joy.If you'd like to see more of Turia, you can find all of her stuff here: https://www.turiapitt.com/Turia's podcast - TURIA PITT IS HARD WORK podcast can be listened to here Tell your mum, tell you dad, tell your dog, tell your friends and share the love because we love love!! xxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, before we get into this episode, we just wanted to let you know that we do talk about suicide on this app. And so if that brings up anything for you and you want to speak to someone, there is always help available. You can call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Life Uncut podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. This episode is recorded on Gadigal land of the Aurora Nation. Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Laura and I'm Brittany and it is absolute chaos in a life uncut podcast office in commas.

It's not. Do you know what the problem is? Delilah keeps licking my fucking feet. She won't stop licking my feet. She won't stop licking my legs. She won't get out from under the table and everybody else thinks it's funny and I don't like it. Because I think, I think it's funny because of your reaction. Like you hate it so much. And I said, put some socks on. Maybe, maybe this is her way animals are pretty instinctive maybe she's trying to say she'll wash your feet I had a shower this morning before I came here so I mean although maybe maybe it's the delicious body moisturizer that I put on this morning oh it could be the cocoa butter that is what I think it is so anyway Britt I hear that you have a little story that happened to you on the weekend that

you wanted to share and when I say Britt has a little story it's now what it's we're recording this it's 1 p.m in the afternoon and she's held on to this to tell me it on the podcast it was just something funny it's not this is a groundbreaking but if you guys follow myself or producer Keisha on Instagram a few nights ago we were coming back from the dog park we we took Delilah down for a quick little run we're coming back and I almost I was driving I almost had a heart attack I saw you know when you see a dog run across a road that is obviously lost and scared it ran straight in front of this car I was like you know when you can't talk and this car narrowly missed it and then kept driving then another kind of other side of the road narrowly missed it and

this dog was like it wasn't just directly crossing the road it was scared like running down the middle of a main street like that sort of yeah so of course we pull over and I was like we have to save this dog because everyone's just driving off like dusky so it's getting dark I thought it's definitely gonna get hit by a car so I pull over Keisha runs down the street the dog has run down this side street off a main road and it's in a cul-de-sac Keisha's trying to coax it towards it and I come down in the car with the lead anyway well we lasso the dog and it's got no tag on it so we just thought we would capture it call the number it would all be over it has no tag on it so I'm like well we've got to take it home so I took it back to my place with Delilah while we

put some Instagrams out which I go on to the dog face the Facebook groups trying to post these photos Keisha's on dog Facebook groups trying to post these photos I did see that you had a dog in your kitchen well because yes because I didn't want to take it to the pound I just thought I would hope someone would stop if Delilah was on the street that's my hope so we're going all out we didn't get any responses of who it was so I thought I'll take it to a late night vet and get them to microchip scan it so we took it to the vet there was no address the microchip didn't go anywhere so we're staying at the vet for ages I'm still checking all the Instagrams And eventually somehow, the power of social media, someone in a Vizsla Facebook group

from Newcastle contacted somebody else who recognized it from someone else who contacted Keisha's DM and my DM and we found the owner. Now, this was this really big saga. I was like, I'm going to have to keep this dog forever. We finally found it. I like how dramatic you got so quickly. Well, I guess you're moving in now. She's already renamed it, bought it a name tag.

I said, don't send this dog to the pound. like if no one finds it like let me know again and we can come back and we'll sort it out anyway the owner ends up calling keisha and it was a man and he was like beside himself he was like thank you so much like can we send you a voucher whatever we're like obviously no don't be ridiculous but he's like she's my pride and joy i can't believe it the woolworths delivery man came to the house and left the gate open and that's how she got out no now this went on for a little while and then keisha's like well where do you where do you live what area because i'll tell you where we found it anyway turns out we took the dog from its lawn

the dog was on its front lawn and we thought we were saving it which we were saving it but it ran home to the lawn and that's where we captured it wait did you tell the guy that you actually ended up kidnapping his dog no so he told us where he lived and keisha and i looked at each other and we're like oh my god that's where we took the dog we literally we literally took the dog we saved the dog from his own home I also I also love that the guy was trying to buy you a gift voucher and you're like I'm sorry that I actually kidnapped you it's petty theft you don't need to buy no but actually vizzles are expensive that that is grand theft anything over a thousand dollars is grand after the dog grand theft auto it was so funny but I don't feel bad because we didn't at the end

of the day we saw what had just happened that he did nearly get hit by a car she sorry she nearly got hit by two cars it was getting dark we weren't to know she was trying to make her way home when we took her so it's also like okay I can see the funny and the irony in this but like hilarious but also it's not like you snuck into someone's backyard I was like well this dog was clearly missing and unloved and I am a superhero but you know when you have that realization when he told us the address and in our head we both looked at each other and we were doing the maths and I was like pulled up google maps and I was like precisely where we took your dog from Brittany Hockley and Keisha you are the um you are the visual aunties that nobody needs a little bit that way not all

heroes wear capes that's all I'm gonna say anyway that was my little story I thought it was absolutely hilarious but I think you had a bit of an eventful weekend on social media too well I mean I think we were kind of going from the highs of social media and the good things that can come out of social media I wanted to talk about something that happened on the weekend that if you guys follow me on Instagram you may have already seen in my stories but it is to do with this season of maths and it is to do with this season's villain of maths and that was Olivia Fraser. Now if you're not familiar with the story that happened over the weekend her boyfriend Jackson cheated on her and this is her boyfriend from the show this is her boyfriend from the show now Olivia and this

is just to give you guys context if you're not maths fans Olivia was the villain of this season and rightfully so her her behavior on the show was pretty deplorable she shared around a nude photo of Dominica that she'd taken from OnlyFans and she shared it around without Dominica's consent to the other contestants yeah completely not cool disgusting and she's been held to account like there have been numerous news articles written about her there has been so much commentary that has played out across social media with everybody the public of Australia weighing in their opinions around just how vile they think Olivia is for this but over the weekend something happened now the wash which some of you might be familiar with is a it's an Instagram site that kind of reports

on popular reality TV news and they posted a video of Jackson out at a nightclub kissing another woman so effectively it was a very very graphic video you could not like you can't argue what he's doing it's not like taken from behind the scenes somebody standing right next to him has taken a video of him kissing another woman and cheating on Olivia oh yeah there's without doubt he's 100% they're in a very passionate embrace he's making out with her there is no way you can say I was just taking her chewing gum and somebody and somebody got this awkward photo like you know it is what it is but what makes it even worse is that like and all reports that have come out of this is that olivia was actually at the club just earlier so her and jackson had gone out together

with a group of friends she had gone home early to the hotel and then after she'd gone home early to the hotel to go to sleep he has fucking cheated on her now the thing i wanted to talk about here is the fact that yes olivia is the villain of that season of maths but the amount of hate the amount of vitriol the amount of just like pure like and I can't even like I mean pure hatred that she is receiving across social media in a time where she's suffering really hurt like I saw this happen over the weekend and I was like how are we all so okay with being so fucking mean to someone who is so clearly suffering even if we think they deserve it like even if you don't like her even if the things that she's done you think you know what like yeah like you're a bad person

and you should be held to account. Does that mean that you're the person or the people who are making these comments are the people to hold her to account? Do you know what I mean? Like, well, by all accounts, I think she seems like she's suffered tremendously since the show in terms of the hate she's received,

the bullying, the work that she has lost since going on the show, her personal life has suffered. She's definitely, I feel like, paid the price for what went down. There has been another part of this story, which I think has added to the negativity that has been playing out across social media. And that is that so many people are saying that

this is a publicity stunt, that actually Jackson and Olivia and their publicity agent, Max Markson are all in on this, that this is something that has been orchestrated and that it was a planned publicity stunt. Now for someone, I mean, I know there's gonna be a lot of you who don't agree with me and that's okay. But for someone who's been in the reality TV world for a long time, I just do not buy this I don't think anyone's going to set up a publicity stunt that undermines their relationship because the most valuable thing that Olivia and Jackson have coming out of mass is that they are in love when you're a reality tv contestant and you come out of a show and you're actually in a happy couple like it's almost like you two verse the world you two against

everything and the two of them are so much more valuable together than what they are if everybody in Australia thinks that he's a cheater and that she's a piece of shit. Look, my personal opinion is I cannot see why anyone would want to blow themselves up anymore when you're in the situation that Olivia is in. I don't think there's anything to be gained by doing a publicity stunt that your partner just cheated on you when you're already in the depths of despair. Nothing good can come from that. And like you said, Laura, people want the happy ever after. People, you are stronger together, she wouldn't want to throw any more wood on the fire. Yeah. I mean, it's totally humiliating. At what point does the punishment outweigh the crime, the crime of behaving badly

on reality TV? When does the bullying become too much? And when does the like the public outrage, the public hate, at what point do we stop and go, okay, I think this person suffered enough for the way that they behaved. When will we be happy? Is it when they think that their life isn't worth living is it when they get to a point where they have nothing and they feel like such a piece of shit that they take their own life the reason why I got so upset when I saw this playing out on social media over the weekend was because a couple of weeks ago Olivia came out and she said now this is in articles she has reported this to journalists she said I am suicidal the only reason why I haven't taken my life is because of my boyfriend Jackson because one she's so grateful for what

she has with him. Two, she feels like she didn't want to put him in a situation where he would come home and find her. That was the one thing that gave her hope when the rest of Australia fucking hates her. And now she's lost that. And not only has she lost that, but half of half of Australia are reveling in her suffering. And I just think it felt sick to me to see all these comments play out. And I really want to like, make sure that this message is driven home to anyone listening, because I know that there's going to be so many people who watch maths who are like, no she behaved terribly she deserves this we all know how hurtful it is to be cheated on like being cheated on fucking sucks could you imagine being cheated on and then every single

person who's commenting on these pictures saying not only that you deserve it but they're happy that it happened to you and that that finally that person's seen the light and that it's not home wrecking it's a home improvement you just would feel so worthless as a human being well for me Laura I'm not going to speak on behalf of you but I do know that you feel this way too there are not many things that I hate more in the whole world than bullying and I don't understand why people cannot dislike someone or something or have opinions without physically going to tell a stranger that they should kill themselves or that they're scum or that they should get cancer and these are the things that are literally written every single day and I know our listeners our

listeners are so beautiful and you guys are not the problem yeah we are not talking to you about you guys think back to when you were at school and maybe somebody said something nasty to you one person maybe it was someone you liked a crush or a boyfriend or a friend or someone said something mean at any age teenager child maybe it's an adult maybe it's a co-worker think of how horrible that made you feel and think of how long you've held on to that comment for now imagine if that was happening times a thousand times ten thousand times hundreds of thousands times hundreds of thousands and with no reprieve incessantly all day publicly on all platforms on all media then privately in your dms messages imagine how that would make you feel because

that's what's happening right now and at the end of the day it doesn't matter who's on the other side that person's a human being it doesn't matter what they've done and i say that within context we're not talking about murderers here this is like we're talking about someone that did something really really shit and we're not we don't agree with it but they are a human at the end of the day and they have publicly come out and said I'm suicidal how can we listen to somebody say that and then continue to attack them knowing that we are pushing them over the edge that's where it's too much for me well I guess it's that question of like who is deserving of the empathy who is deserving of the kindness and like we had this an interesting conversation and Keisha said this

it's like it's not that she's deserving necessarily of your compassion but don't give anything like if you have nothing nice to say say nothing at all it's the age-old saying yeah and it's that hypocritical conversation of like matching somebody else's nastiness with your own nastiness doesn't negate their nastiness like it just makes everybody a fucking asshole like nobody wins in that situation and i guess one of the really important parts of this is that there have been numerous people who have committed suicide off the back of reality tv this hasn't happened in Australia yet but I guarantee it is a matter of time until we take it too far until the public bullies them into a point where they feel as though they don't have an out and that nobody

wants them to exist and that they are nothing that they are scum there are reports that so far and this is worldwide 38 people have committed suicide off the back of reality tv and almost all of those have come from the fact that they have publicly been brought down incessant bullying unfortunately the most recent death was Love Island UK host Carolyn Flack. Now, I think a lot of people will remember that. She had a really, really hard time. Before that, we had a few big Love Island UK contestants. One of them was Sophie Gratton. And pretty soon after she was found, her boyfriend also committed suicide. And it was really tragic. In one of her final interviews, her last interview that she did, she said, there would be so many negative comments. They are

commenting on the way you look the way you talk they would come up with an opinion of you on a tv show where they've watched you for 45 minutes you've probably only seen 10 minutes of it cut down from 24 hours it was very hard to deal with because you take it like you're being judged it can really get into your mind and really affect you the harsh reality is it can end up with that person taking their own life that was her very final interview and she three months later committed suicide knowing that this is happening and knowing that is off the back of people strangers commenting horrific things on their instagram now we see our own local australian reality tv contestant whether you like her or not she has come out and publicly said the same thing and yet we continue to go for

her and tear her down like she's not a human being with human feelings and because people don't believe it that's the thing right like there's this caveat people are like well no you're a bad person so i don't believe that you have feelings because the thing about reality tv is that it makes people one-dimensional even if they are a villain they are a one-dimensional villain they are horrible vile like they're just someone who's not deserving of any kindness whatsoever because they don't have kindness in their body but then the other flip side of that is nobody talks about the fact that throughout all of olivia's 20s that she took care of her her dad who was dying you know there is compassion and kindness in her we just haven't seen it because

it didn't play out across tv i know that there are going to be people listening to this who are like fuck you lauren britney you shouldn't be standing up for a villain and it's not easy to go against the mob right it would be much easier for us to sit here and not say anything at all and we have no connection to any of these people from that show by the way and this isn't us necessarily standing up for a villain either it is us talking about a situation as a whole that has gone too far totally and that's what i mean like it would be so much easier to say nothing because then we wouldn't cop any of the criticism i copped a lot of criticism over the weekend from people who told me to shut my fucking mouth and that I didn't know what I was talking about and that she deserves it

and my point isn't whether she does or doesn't deserve it my point is just leave the girl alone because at the end of the day you don't want to be responsible for someone's complete erosion of their mental health and all of us every single one of us want to be a better person that we're not reveling in somebody else's suffering that we're not happy about somebody else feeling like a piece of shit also I think people don't realize this is actually a fact too like it takes more muscles and strength to frown to be then be happy yeah it does to be angry than it does to be happy so people conserve your energy redirect your energy put it somewhere else I don't think we need to use the last little ounces of energy at the end of the day to go and bring somebody else

down this is just my opinion definitely have your opinion if you want to talk about your opinion with your friends and have those conversations that's okay please do not go and write on someone's profile, with the masses, with the pile on, maybe just because you've heard someone else say it or you've seen some other media outlets say it. And there are media outlets there that are purely driven to be pushing people against other people. We know that. Being super conscious about what you're consuming, what media are you consuming? What accounts do you follow? What podcasts do you listen to? There are definitely media out there. They hang on the edge of drama and gossip and they ignite and incite this sort of hate, like this sort of vile hate. They thrive off it. That's

how they get their clicks. That's how they get their downloads. It is a currency for them that you get so angry that you want to say these horrible things, forgetting that there's a person at the bottom of that pile. And that's the whole essence of pile on culture of cancel culture. I think if you follow these accounts, like take this moment, if you listen to this and you're like, yeah, actually, do you know what? It is exhausting seeing so much hate on my social media. It is exhausting. Just like getting down in the trenches of bringing somebody else down. even if you don't like them, use this opportunity to go and unfollow and be a really conscious consumer of the content that you're taking in every day. Because you might see those comments

and you might scroll past, whereas you could stop giving that person your likes, you can stop giving that account your engagement because engagement equals dollars. And also I really like encourage if you do see someone bullying somebody else, even if you think that they may be deserving of it, even if you think that their values don't align with you it's okay to call it out and say hey guys i don't like this person but this is getting really fucking mean yeah this is not cool this is going too far because it's okay to be the better person in this situation well you know i always grew up my mom always told me it's cool to be kind that and it is true it is definitely you are way cooler you're a way better person if you are a good person in social media and like you

said Laura you choose what you listen to you choose what you watch you choose what you consume you choose who you follow so all we can ask is that you take some consideration and remember how powerful your words are because they really truly could be the difference in someone having a great day and a really really fucking bad day well I feel like we've covered enough of that and and look it is a heavier topic and I know that there will be people out there who don't agree and that is absolutely okay we don't expect you guys to come here and listen to us because it's an echo chamber. It is all right for everybody to have different opinions. However, ultimately, I hope that we can all agree on the fact that being nice and being a good human certainly isn't going to go

out of fashion anytime soon, but it is time for our favorite segment. And that is one that's a little bit more uplifting than that. And it is accidentally unfiltered. All right. I am going to kick it off. I was out for dinner at an incredibly fancy restaurant over the weekend with my partner, his business partner and his wife. Anyway, we're sitting down, we're having a beautiful time and out come the entrees, all these little hors d'oeuvres before the entrees actually got there. So I pick up one and I put it into my mouth. And as I do, the thing starts to expand. It looked a little bit like a marshmallow when everybody at the table starts pissing themselves at me. And I realized it wasn't a marshmallow at all. I had just put the little

expanding hand towel into my mouth and it was rapidly growing like that you wash your hands and face you know the thing that you put in the little thing of water and then you get on a plane sometimes and she hated it well did she eat it did she swallow it she didn't eat it she just started chewing on it and then realized it was a hand towel but as she was chewing on it it was expanding and everyone was laughing at her it's so funny and then to make it worse as everybody of the table is sitting there laughing at her the waitress comes over and says oh don't worry it happens all the time it does not happen all the time but also if it did happen all the time as a waitress you would just say to people okay put these in the water they expand they're for

your hands that is so funny it definitely does not happen all the time have you that's a great story i just want you guys though if you've been to a restaurant you've seen one of these things like they don't look like food i'm trying to picture it but i don't think i can because i'm picturing just like a blatant towel no no they're these little tiny hard they're almost like little cylinders they look like a tablet they're a little tiny hard tablet of towel like a really compressed airtight i don't go to fancy enough and when you put them in water they expand into a hand towel my restaurants don't give me fancy tablet towels all right what is your story oh well i was just gonna tell a story that i only just heard this morning so

this is real time story i went down look guys i don't have much for life everything happens at the dog park. I went to the dog park. Just one time at dog park. That is my life. I spent so much time at the dog park. But I have made so many friends from the dog park, might I add. This guy, he's got a beautiful dog, like a little bitzer called Ellie. He saved her from a dumpster. That is not the funny part. That is very tragic. So he was telling me this story. He and a group of friends always like once a week for as long as they can remember, they go to one of their friends' houses out the back in this little cul-de-sac and they do a workout outside, just like a garage workout yeah sure yeah but at the at the back he takes his dog ellie but there's

like a couple of meters wall at the back and like a retaining wall quite high and then there's another house on top so the street above is quite high now they have done this for a very long time they're loud it's very obvious they're there anyway they're working out he's topless he's mid-30s topless sweating ellie the dog always goes so ellie always runs up this retaining wall to that but she always just sits up the top and like looks over she doesn't go anywhere she disappeared and he was like ellie ellie ellie calling out incessantly she wasn't coming and he was like well there's a house up there i better go and find her and i had been calling ellie for like 10 minutes and she hadn't come so so he goes up climbs up this retaining wall to this to this

house and he's in the backyard backing onto the house with no shirt on no shirt on very sweaty mid to late 30s this is important ellie he's like ellie trying to call out to this house ellie ellie ellie couldn't see her ellie ellie getting a bit louder then he sees his dog ellie down the side of the house and he starts whistling he's like ellie like that then this big beefed up man comes outside the house he goes what the fuck are you doing here in my house he's like i'm just i'm just getting trying to get ellie i've just come for ellie and the guy's like get what do you mean you've come for ellie and he's like i'm so sorry he's like i've he's like i'm always here we come here i come here once a week he's like i'm just i'll get ellie and i'll be gone and this guy

went bonkers and he's like she's 17 what are you doing chase he's like what the fuck are you doing and he's like whoa whoa what he's like no i swear my dog's name's ellie my dog's in your house he's like get the fuck off my property anyway he had a 17 year old daughter called ellie and this guy's like please don't beat me like my promise my dog is in your house and i just thought it was so funny he's like i was scared for my life this this guy's thinking that he's out there boating a 17 year old and that his own daughter and he's topless and sweaty and he says i come here all the time every week on a wednesday anyway that's that's my rule accidentally I felt it and I just thought it was

what are the odds um my dad would have beat him to death my dad would have just gone bonkers well anyway let's get into the chat with Turia while competing in a 100 kilometer ultra marathon in the Kimberleys in Western Australia in 2011 Turia Pitt encountered an out of control grass fire. Now she was trapped by the flames and she suffered burns to 65% of her body. Despite this huge trauma, Toria went against the odds, surviving the fire and facing the next challenges head on. She has gone on to write three best-selling books. She's a coach for 40,000 people. She is a motivational speaker and she competes in Ironman World Championships. She walked the Kokoda track. She's built a business and she is a mother to two beautiful children. She is literally a superwoman,

just not wearing a cape. She's absolutely incredible. And we feel so privileged to have Turia on the podcast today. Turia, we start every single episode the same way and that is we do an accidentally unfiltered and most embarrassing story with all our guests. It's a very humanizing way of getting to know you. I mean, you don't have to share the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you, but you should if you want to. I'm not going to talk about farting during sex because that's that that's embarrassing that's embarrassing but like um okay so I was at uni and I went to the shops and I bought heaps of cans of tuna and like a big bottle of balsamic vinaigrette and I put it in my backpack because from back then it was like you know plastic bags

bad and then I was running to catch my bus so I could see the bus coming around the corner I was like I've just gotta pedal to the metal right I've got to get going and so I'm running running on. I can feel my bag with all these cans of tuna and the big bottle of balsamic vinaigrette. And in my head, I'm just like, it's just like a waitress, just like a waitress. Like, keep going, keep going. Don't miss this bus. And my bag split. And so all of these cans of tuna come rolling out and the big bottle of balsamic vinaigrette smashes on the pavement. And so I take a step into the balsamic vinaigrette and I lose my balance. And so I slide. So I'm sliding down the hill covered in balsamic vinaigrette with tuna cans rolling around me

and everyone at the bus stops just staring at me. And did you get the bus? Yeah, so I picked myself up, like picked up what cans I could carry in my hands, hopped on the bus, sat down and I just reeked like balsamic vinaigrette the whole way home. I just love how classic it is. It hit every single uni student when you're like, I'm at uni, so I just went to shops and got 25 cans of tuna

because that's all any uni student can afford. That's all you can afford. And salad dressing and you just spent the rest of the day reeking of it. Turia, one of the reasons, I mean, there's many reasons why we wanted to get you on the podcast, but something that you are currently doing is that you are on The Apprentice. Yes. What was it that made you want to sign up to do a reality TV show? Yeah, I think I decided to do it because of the charity reason, right?

That you can raise so much money for your charity. So in episode one, even though I lost that task, I still managed to raise 235 grand for Interplus. And it wasn't just me, right? It was all, it was a whole team. So that's amazing. That's really cool. That was a reason I decided to do it.

There was a lot of good things about doing the show. So I met some really cool people. I made some really close friends. It was something I'd never done before, but there was also some aspects of it that I didn't love as much such as working with people that you might not work with in the real world the editing process of how they put the story together things like that but I I knew that at the start I knew that that was a possibility isn't it funny the world of reality tv if you haven't been in it yet and then once you get thrown into it you just realize how much and not necessarily fabricated

but how much things are like pushed along by the producers they're definitely yeah they're definitely massaged and fabricated and I understand because it needs to be compelling tv but at the same time when you're in that situation you're like I don't give a fuck if this isn't compelling like I'm not I'm not you know I'm not I'm not doing that but I guess the other question as well as is like you are so well loved like Australia loves you so many people know your story and you have written incredible books you are honestly Australia's sweetheart was there ever worry about going on and doing reality TV and then having your personality or the perception of yourself edited or changed by production and were you ever worried about how that was going

to be perceived by people yeah I was definitely definitely was but I still wanted to do it and I also felt like the public the Australian public everyone knows that reality TV is edited everyone knows it's not reflective of real life so I thought that people would be smart and savvy enough to sort of figure it out well this is the other thing right people get so invested in the in reality tv in these characters and they really feel like they know you but for you I think it was never going to be a worry for your narrative to be flipped because you have presented yourself to Australia so much previously with your books and your speaking so even if they try to flip you and make you look like something you're not you're like look I've been in the

spotlight for 10 years. Like people know my story. So I feel like you are safe, but let's go back to when Australia did meet you back in 2011. Can you, and I'm sure, I'm sure you've told this story a million times, but for those that haven't heard your story, can you talk us through what happened that day? Yeah. So September, 2011, I was working as a mining engineer in the Kimberleys at the Argyle Diamond Mine. I loved running because it was like a bit of stress relief after a hard day at work. So I entered an ultra marathon. So an ultra marathon is typically like anything over 50 Ks, but this ultra marathon was 100 Ks. I entered an ultra marathon a quarter of the way through the race. We were confronted with a fire racing through a gorge and there was six other

runners that I was with at the time. So it wasn't just me and the fire overtook us and I received burns to 65% of my body. But immediately after getting burnt, because the fire obviously kept burning past us, I got this really weird sense of elation or joy because I thought when I was burning, I thought I was going to die. I thought this is it. I'm never going to see my beautiful partner again. And so when I was still standing, I don't know how long it was, maybe like five, 10 seconds. I really don't know. I was elated because I was still alive and I was still standing. And I think as well, that was my body's coping mechanism, right? You go into a bit of shock and maybe a little bit of denial about what had happened. So we waited for four hours on that

desolate hillside. We got medevaced out of there in a helicopter, got transferred to Kununur Hospital and I woke up a month later in a hospital in Sydney. And that was really where I think the real work began for me because when I get asked like was it you know was it painful being burnt alive so that sounds quite graphic but there's no really other way to say it like it was hard but at the same time it was like so quick and like it just it happened to me like you know what I mean but then in hospital I had agency I suppose and I had to figure out my way through it I had to figure out how I would be able to walk again how I'd be able to talk again how I'd be able to run again? How'd we able to go back to work? You know, having a family with Michael, all of those

things were kind of little goals or little steps that I had to take. In that moment, was there warning that the fire was coming? Was there any way that anyone contacted you to say this is happening or did you literally just turn around and see it coming? And then the little group of you had to decide what to do, which way do we run? Do we go up? Do we go down? How do we like, what were those moments like? Yeah, I guess because it was in a gorge, right? And so a little bit of engineering for you. So when hot air is condensed and compressed into a gorge, so into a narrow space, it creates a suction effect, which is called the Venturi effect, right? So those fire was at the start of the gorge, but because we were also in the gorge at the same time and the Venturi

effect or the suction effect was pulling the fire through really, really fast. It was almost like shit there's a fire what do we do do we go up the side of the gorge there's less vegetation but fire travels faster going up an incline or do we go back the way we've came in but there's a lot of vegetation a lot of fuel for the fire there was about spinifex grass about up to my shoulder high so both choices were pretty shit and so a couple of us decided to go up the side of the gorge and the fire just completely overwhelmed us. Toria what happened to the other people that you were running with that day? So two of the guys got burned to about 25% of their body there was another woman Kate Sanderson who's a total legend who I still you know I speak with today she got

burnt to around 65% as well so very similar to me one of her feet got amputated though as a result of her burns and then two of the guys somehow didn't get burnt at all wow so it was just there was no rhyme or reason can I ask I know that obviously the physical recovery would have been such an intense process for you and that would have taken and I know did take many years and many operations but in terms of what that mental recovery looks like how do you start to process what's happened and kind of when do you feel like you got to a point where maybe you haven't? I don't know exactly, but where do you feel like you were like, okay, I've got my life in order now. Like I can control this and I know that I can overcome this. Yeah. I don't think

I've ever reached that point. It's a little bit like, you know, with your job, right? How some days you love it and then other days you're like, what am I doing? So I think some days I felt really in control and like I was crushing my recovery and other days I'd be completely overwhelmed by what had happened to me. I think when you're navigating something as complex as trauma, I don't think you can do it alone to start with. So I had a really amazing psychologist who I saw regularly, who I really think was instrumental for me and my recovery. I think accepting and acknowledging what's happened, I think there's a culture of toxic positivity where we always have to put a positive spin on things. I think that is sometimes harmful.

like if something's shit it's okay to just say it's shit and just step into that and allow yourself to to wallow in it for a little bit that's been my experience as well just accepting it and acknowledging it I also think though that for me I was such a young woman I was 24 at the time and so I still had all of these really big milestones that I wanted to achieve or I wanted to do such as having having kids with my partner Michael and I think for me that was a form of hope right that things will get better and there's a lot to look forward to and I think just the nature of burns as well is that you start off at your worst you start off really really bad unable to roll over unable to wipe your own ass unable to do the most basic simple everyday thing that you

might have taken for granted before. But I found out that the more I worked or the more I did my physio session or the more I showed up to doing exercise, I found that I got stronger and I got better. I also think having a goal or something outside of yourself, because a lot of times we can get so stuck up in our head. And for me, I don't find being in my head a very good place to be and so I had this goal of one day doing an Ironman which is like a it's like the epitome of an endurance event and so rather than thinking about this catastrophe which had happened to me I was thinking about doing my training sessions what nutrition I was eating how many running sessions I was doing a week that type of thing so I don't know if that really answers the question

I actually forgot what the original question was you know what you could say anything Turia we are literally like hooked onto every word. No, it was around how did you start that mental recovery and what was the process like? And I actually think it's so important because I guess with a lot of these things, people expect, and not just specifically your story, I think with any trauma, there is a hope that there's an end goal, but I think that there's always this continual working on ourselves and this continual working through the things that we go through in life. Yeah. For all of us, for all of us, right? Like that's for me with this trauma that I've experienced and if I get upset I remind myself that it's so fine to get upset because it was

a super traumatic event that no one should have to live through but there's so many people out there in the world who have super hard super horrible super harrowing things that they have to live with and so I don't want to paint this picture that you get to this end point and then you're sweet you're happy life's good because I don't think that's realistic I don't really think that's helpful for other people who are dealing with something really hard. But if anyone listening is going through something really tough right now, I would encourage you to seek some support or a psychologist and there's some amazing support services out there. And just also that it's okay some days to not be okay. It's just a feeling. It's not particularly comfortable. No one likes

feeling sad or down or disheartened, but it is just a feeling. Yeah. And I don't know if you know Em Carey. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Amazing. Yeah. So we spoke to Em a little while ago. For everyone listening, she's the girl that fell from the sky. She plummeted to the ground basically when she was parachuting. And her story is absolutely an incredible story also of survival and recovery and finding herself again. But she was really honest at the start too. And she said when she woke up, she wanted to die. She's like, I didn't want to live anymore. She had to go on suicide watch when she was in her hospital. Hard question, Turia, but was there ever a point that you felt that? Because I think it's so inspirational to see where you are now, but I think it's important

to really talk about those down days too. Yeah, totally. Of course I did. Some days I'd wake up in my hospital bed and just think, fuck, I don't want to do this. I can't do this. I'm not strong enough to do this. I don't want to be here. This is too hard. I just want to give up. I think what helped me was I had really great supports and not only from my family, but also from my beautiful partner Michael so that was definitely helpful and I also I didn't expect too much from myself so when I made it through another day and that I was still here I would try and celebrate that as trivial as it sounds I would say you haven't really done anything of note today but you're still here like you're still surviving that means there's still hope and you've still

got hope in your future so I think it's almost lowering the expectations for what you're able to achieve which sounds again counterintuitive right because we say to ourselves gotta set big goals gotta reach for the stars gotta strive and that's all very well but I think when you've gone through something really tough it is okay just to focus on surviving and surviving when you're going through something really hard is really fucking tough. Turia you've said a couple of times and you're amazing I mean your beautiful relationship with Michael and I think that this is a love story I followed you guys on social media seeing you have your little children like your two kids when you say you're 24 years old and you went through this experience was there

ever a point early on where you were like fuck is he gonna is he gonna sign up and do this hard work with me like is he gonna stick it out and when was it that Michael kind of turned around he was like we're in this we're doing this together all the way um I think part of me felt really guilty to be honest because this catastrophe had impacted my life and then I felt bad because it had derailed Michael's life as well so I felt really guilty so that was really hard so I did try and push him away but Michael is the most placid easygoing humble bloke that is out there And so he would just be there every day. So he'd show up in the morning at 7.30 and sometimes I'd be like,

what are you doing here? Like, go away. I don't want you here. Like, go away. Because I just felt so guilty and I felt like it would be easier for me if I didn't have anyone who loved me. I'm, like, crying. I know.

Now that I've said all that, I'm like, gee, I shouldn't have, no, I shouldn't have reached at Michael for his dishes in the sink this morning. Like, that would have been. after all he's done for me like does it really matter that he opens a second tub of yogurt i mean the answer is probably no but you're you're entitled to that you sit in that so yeah he's a mate yeah he's amazing there's a really good conversation that comes from this as well and like i hate that saying like you have to love yourself before someone else is

going to love you because i think that it really diminishes those periods of life where you aren't able to love yourself and it kind of like it kind of reinforces that you're not lovable you know and when you tell this beautiful story that you're going through a period where you didn't feel worthy of love and you didn't necessarily love yourself at that moment because of everything else that was going on yeah you're still so worthy of that and I mean it's a beautiful story for people to hear but also I think it's very humbling to hear you say it the way that you did yeah well thank you Turia something I wanted to ask you and I read your book last year on happiness and And, I mean, firstly, why is the aspiration of happiness so ridiculous, I think, is probably

the best place to start. Why do you think that we kind of, or why we shouldn't prize happiness as the end goal? I think because it's so fleeting, it's ephemeral, right? Like, I think some days we are really happy and stoked and frothing and enthusiastic and excited. And when we feel those feelings, we should lean into them and we should go with them and we should be grateful that we feel that way. but we shouldn't beat ourselves up when we feel tired or stressed or anxious or resentful or

guilty or diminished because all of those are feelings and they're they're very valid and they're very normal and we all feel like that and so I like to describe happiness as it's the journey it's not about the destination there's no day in the future where we have the best job in the world and the best partner in the world and perfect children that will be happy because we might be for a couple of days but then something will inevitably happen some days Michael's going to open up two tubs of yogurt yeah and it's going to really piss me off it's going to piss me off we're going to be like why would you do that what same person opens up a second tub of yogurt when there's one what are we going to do with the first tub he's a maniac yeah he's crazy he's out there

what do you think from all the people that you interviewed in creating this book if you were to walk away with one lesson and I know this is a very hard question but what was like the most profound thing that you walked away from when writing that book and were like that that stuck with me I think I I interviewed Eddie Jaku who is a holocaust survivor and he had a really simple but really profound outlook on happiness and it was basically just tell people that you love them make time for relationships if you don't feel happy then that's fine which I just found it was just it was like so simple but so so profound and also to be to try and be grateful for this thing that we call life and just acknowledge that it's not always great it's not always

sunshine and roses but that doesn't mean it's not still a really magical journey that we get to do you just mentioned like speaking about happiness and I think this is something that a lot of humans do and we really need to check ourselves is that we do always chase something so it's like oh if I can just get that promotion I'll be happy if I can just just get a partner I'll be happy if I can just get that overseas trip if I can just get a house if I can just get a dog and it's this perpetual like chasing the happiness and all of a sudden years have gone past you're still not happy because you're still wanting more so I think there's this real lesson in trying to sit in the day and in the moment and try and look around you and be grateful for what you are and

I think that's obviously what you were talking about in your book is to not chase these things Yeah. And it sounds counterintuitive, right? That it's about learning to be happy with your life as it is. So it sounds very counter to type A personalities, which I am one of. And I think it is definitely great to make progress and to work on things that you love and to work towards your goals. But I think it's really important as well to be happy or to be satisfied with the life that you have. Look for the little pockets of joy, whether that's catching up with with a girlfriend for a coffee or picking up your kids a little bit earlier from school or going down to the beach one hour with your family just that kind of simple stuff leaning

into it and savoring it I've found with me over the past 10 years has helped. You are truly the definition of ambition and resilience to go from having the experience the traumatic experience that you had to being able to then get back into marathon running to having two children to writing books being an incredible public speaker to having a podcast there's so many I mean you've just gone tick tick tick tick I know right but what do you think that your experience and like how you show up in life has kind of taught you about what is achievable and what you can do as a person to start with I feel I feel really lucky because I genuinely love the work that I do like I love writing I love reading I love chatting to people I love helping other people to run so I genuinely

love what I do right so I think that makes it a lot easier if you love what you do it doesn't really feel like work obviously like with everything there's some aspects of it that I'm like fuck I hate this this is the shittiest thing ever hopefully that's not right now especially especially when you're like juggling two little kids and you're sleep deprived and you've got everything else going on totally totally got a book in and I remember seeing you you'd gone and had another surgery at one point in time where you were like I've just had a surgery I'm trying to do with the kids. There's so many things and factors that I'm still dealing with in life and things just pile up. Yeah, they do. So I think, again, this sounds really counterintuitive

to achievement culture or whatever you want to call it, but I just have a practice of just showing up, whatever it is, showing up, showing up to the gym, just doing my training session. Even if I do a pathetic job, I'm still there. I'm still doing another session. I'm still making progress. with writing it's not about trying to sit down and write a masterpiece it's just fucking just write every day 20 minutes even if what you write is completely inane and dribble but it's like you just show up you focus on being consistent you focus on taking those small steps I'd love to sit down and go away for a couple of weeks go on a writing retreat write every day drink green smoothies that's not going to happen so I've got to be satisfied with

putting the kids to bed like getting out of bed writing down if I write for 10 minutes or for 20 minutes or whatever it's still a win because at least I've done that bit of work and I think it's again so often you know we might go to the gym three times in a week I'm using examples of physical stuff because I find it's easier to conceptualize but you know there's no point betting yourself up because you slept in that day just get over it get up the next day go to the gym But this running program right for moms and it's, I feel like the stuff we talk about is just showing up, getting it done. If you're not happy with your run, that's fine. You're going to have some shit runs. Just keep showing up and try and be consistent with it. And then it's not

really rocket science. You just get, whatever you're doing right, you get better at it. If you do it regularly enough, like with your podcast, I'm sure at the start, maybe your girls weren't as awesome as you are now it's hard to listen to to be honest yeah exactly and you've just gotten better because you've done it so much and you're learning from your mistakes and you're getting feedback on how you can do things differently or how you could improve it and you just get better so how long was it after you had your first set of operations and through your recovery that you got back into your running oh it probably was I remember in the first 60 minutes thing I did that was probably maybe like a year and I ran like you know how they make you

run with the cameras and I was like okay yep so I ran it was like maybe five or ten meters and I just would focus on those small wins that I did all those small achievements and I'd focus on being consistent with the work that I was doing and trying to show up and the same can be said for relationships too right like showing up for your family showing up for your partner showing up for your friends being consistent I mean I think that when you say these things they can seem like such simple steps and I think for example anyone who's had a baby knows how hard it can be getting back into exercise it can feel overwhelming it can feel daunting all those sorts of things totally but when you put that on a spectrum of comparison which I mean not that it's a healthy thing to do

but like comparing how it must have felt to get back out there and go for that very first run to now look at where you are now and what an accomplished runner you are that you're helping other people getting back into their whatever obstacle that they've had in terms of their fitness yeah it's a truly incredible thing to see and I just I mean you're an amazing woman and we're so grateful to have you on the podcast today to be able to share not just parts of your story but to be able to share the wisdom that you have come to sort of know and understand over these years true how far are you running now what do you what's your sketch what's your what's your sketch what's your schedule like what's my schedule um I'm not running that far eh because

We've just moved up to Port Douglas because Michael's a helicopter pilot. Yes, I want to ask you about that. Yeah, so we don't have any family up here, which is quite hard with the kids. So I would probably run not that far, like maybe 5, 10 k's. Speaking about Michael and you being a helicopter pilot, just tell us about that because I read something about him wanting to pursue this and this is his dream off the back of what happened to you, the fact that a helicopter, you know, helped get you out of your accident.

Yeah, I think so. The reason that I'm here, the reason that I'm speaking to you is that there was a helicopter pilot who wasn't part of a coordinated search and rescue team. He was basically just a helicopter flying tourists around. He heard about an accident and he flew out. He balanced on one skid of the helicopter. he took Kate Sanderson first because she seemed to be worse at the time and then he came back and got me and that that's a very dangerous thing to do you're not supposed to balance on one skid particularly if you don't have the training or the qualifications like he wasn't like I said a search and rescue man or anything so I think I'll be forever grateful for that man Paul Cripps is his name and I think that was part of their inspiration for why Michael wanted to be a helicopter pilot wow so that man literally saved your life literally like if we had been there without medical assistance like I don't think we wouldn't have survived the night it's hard to

believe it's still hard to believe it even happened I mean like it's easy for me to say that but listening to you tell your story is um it's very incredible and it's super inspirational and we can't thank you enough for coming on and talking to us today and I I don't want to ever end this interview I could talk to you for I know but we know that you have to go for days on end but we know that you have to go. If you could leave one piece of advice for the listeners now that you have learned in, you know, you've lived many years in your life, what would it be? Well, first of all, I'm not, I'm not that old. I'm still young, man. I'm still good. I'm only 35. Yeah. You're my, yeah. You're my age. Trust me. But I feel it. I feel the back aches.

I feel back aches too. I blame, I blame the kids. I blame the kids. I think honestly, just accept that happiness is fleeting and it's ephemeral you might not be happy all the time and there's there's nothing wrong with that and secondly with whatever it is that you're trying to do in life whether you've got your own podcast or you want a job promotion or whatever it is just try showing up just be consistent with what you're doing and it's not magic you'll just get better at it and you'll make progress on your goals one foot in front of the other that's it mate keep walking thanks so much toria keep walking thanks so much for coming on and we will continue to watch you on celebrity apprentice all right guys you know that we never finish an

episode without our suck and our sweet our highlight and our low light of each and every week brady huckley what was your suck it's pretty funny this is actually a tie i can't work out if it's my suck or my sweet because it sucks because it's embarrassing but it's that's why it's also last week because it was so funny you guys might have seen that stranger things has come out on netflix like this the new series because it's it's everywhere also this is not sponsored just no it's not we're not telling you to go watch it it's just no i haven't seen it yet it's literally been on every single platform ever and also in real life like stranger things are absolutely pushing out the sponsorship to get on everywhere that you look except why didn't they sponsor this

podcast i don't know well we did it for free um they push it out everywhere except for life uncut but part of this big rollout right is and some of you might have seen it go around on social media some of you might not but on bondi beach they they took over and they had this big like fake it's an art installation basically yes it's it but it's it is huge like how big do you think this is laura just go like 50 meters oh my god it's not 50 have you been down there no i haven't i just saw a photo of it no it's like 10 meters by maybe 12 meters that makes me feel better i It's like 10 meters. I saw it in real life on Thursday night.

But it's like, you can just Google the picture now if you haven't seen it. And it's this big, it looks, it's supposed to look like this big sea creature has come out on the beach, right? And then the Bondi rescue were involved and they did all these fake skits about like, oh my God, what's washed up here?

And there were people in contamination suits. It looked pretty legit. Yeah, they had like a scientist down there in hazmat suits, like pretending like they were testing it. It was a very full on and extensive activation for marketing, put it that way. They've got free advertising on Life on Car.

So it did well. I'm going to speak to our sales manager. Like, why the fuck did they not sponsor this podcast episode? Well, that's me. Sorry, my bad. I really let the ball slip on that one. No, but what happened was Keisha and I were together doing some work and Keisha's friend sent us the photos from Western Australia

and they were like, oh, my God, have you seen what's on Bondi Beach? Is this real? And Keisha opened it and showed me and we were both like, oh, my God, this is insane. This is the biggest octopus that has ever washed up on Bondi Beach. You thought it was real. You thought it was real. Yeah, we thought it was real, just from the picture.

But we were like, should we go down? This is crazy. Like, this has come from the depths of the sea. But, I mean, in our defence. It's not the Loch Ness Monster, Brittany. That's what it looks like. Oh, my God. But if you – Laura, I have watched some deep-sea David Attenborough.

Those creatures do exist. So I just thought that they've washed up. Okay, if that was real, they would have had more than just, like, one little tiny warning security tape around it. Well, the photo that we saw was just this octopus, right? people watching like mingling around watching and then heaps of hazmat suits and I actually said to Keisha must be real they've got hazmat suits anyway I can't work out if that's my suck or my sweet let's go suck what was your sweet bed my sweet was I went and got a coffee this

morning walked with Delilah and ran into Hamish Blake as in Hamish and Andy people know who Hamish Blake is he's not very popular you might not know who he is do you want to describe what's he from what does he do with himself these days oh he's got a number one podcast anyway i um i i said hello obviously i was like oh hey hey she was like hey i was like i'm britney from life uncut podcast radio show anyway we had a great old chat for about half an hour and he is even funnier in real life than he is from his show and he literally walked away from that conversation and was like i have no fucking idea who that girl is like who the hell no he was so great he was like love the pod you guys should be beating us every week now he did yeah he did not say that it was a really nice

moment because I I guess along with the rest of Australia I think both Hamish and Andy are so brilliant I think Hamish is so funny and I guess I was a little fangirl I played it cool I was like hey I'm Brett and then we sat down had a coffee for half an hour but like inside I was like screaming and in real time if you guys listen to Hamish and Andy you'll know what I'm talking about but uh someone was jogging past then stopped and he was like oh my god can I have a dollar and Hamish got off and we didn't have him a dollar so it was a real moment that we had but that was it that was my sweet i just was like my fangirl moment this morning that's very very cute do you think he's going to his podcast now and saying that his sweet this week was meeting me no i'm

gonna say probably not not even know who i am he was like just waiting for the cook britney's like we sat we had coffee bath now he was just like waiting for his coffee to be served i then left straight away and she was like we had coffee together he was like backing away slowly and i'm following him and i was like it was totally a moment like you're walking together down the street and he was just trying he's like at his house trying to get inside all right okay what's your song my suck for the week is that we have rising damp and mold in our house it is so bad we moved like if you guys have followed the pod for a little while you would know we moved to a new house in bronte a couple of months ago beautiful house the house is beautiful we are

paying through our teeth for it and since all this rain bloody is it el nino little nino whatever it the the rain that never ends the fuck off oh yeah it's like swimming in water our house is so damp I feel like I'm in I don't know where's a really humid place I feel like I'm in Bali with the doors closed and a hot shower on that is how humid our house is and we've we've got a dehumidifier but the mold the black mold is just growing up the walls in all the rooms doesn't matter what we do three days later it's back and I'm so worried that this is going to be the the beginning of the end for us and our little house in Bronte well you have to yeah you have to continuously be cleaning that because you can't have mold in your house and you know how much I hate cleaning

you have to get a clean a lot no but you have to but I think that this is happening all my friends have said the same thing everyone around here it's just we've had non-stop bad weather yeah and my sweet for the week is that I did my very first workout in a year and I know that sounds lame but I haven't actually done any exercise I mean I've gone for a walk and stuff like that but in terms of actually doing like a gym workout I do my very first workout in the entire like since Lola has been born I do my first workout you went to the actual gym no no no I did it at home oh but that's that's what you need to do homework yeah but I like signed up for a home workout thing and I got this home workout gym and like it's a whole thing and I didn't think you

were looking very toned today thank you and my butt hurts so much that I have to lower myself onto the toilet with both my hands like an old person are you shredding for the wedding is this like a wedding get fits both no i can't be fucking bothered and you're already shredded no i'm just i'm just thin from stress but that's different anyway guys that is it we hope that you loved the interview today we hope you loved hearing from turia pitch she's just such an incredibly resilient woman if you love the episode please jump onto apple podcast leave a review and we will be back on thursday with our ask uncut episode if you have any questions for ask uncut You can slide on into the DMs at Life Uncut Podcast and you know the drill.

Don't forget to tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friends and share the love because we love love.