Celebrating 20 years of Real Life with John Cowan
It was celebration time on Sunday night as we marked 20 years of Real Life with John Cowan on Newstalk ZB with a special one-hour episode.
Real Life gets to the heart of some of New Zealand’s most high-profile people, providing unique insights into who they are, what they believe and how they see the world.
Across two decades, Real Life has produced 963 interviews with 835 unique guests – including at least 24 knights, 14 dames, and 11 Prime Ministers. It’s an astonishing feat and a genuine rarity in commercial radio.
The real value of these interviews lies in the powerful opportunity they create to talk with people about their faith, normalising conversations about God and spirituality that are rarely had in secular media.
Thanks to your generous support, tens of thousands of people listen to these conversations live every Sunday night or read about them in the Herald the following morning.
John Cowan was put in the guest seat on Sunday night in a special one-hour show hosted by Rev Frank Ritchie and Jax Donaldson in celebration of this significant milestone.
In Sunday night’s special episode, John spoke candidly to Newstalk ZB listeners about the show’s focus on spirituality, describing it as a “distinctive feature” of Real Life.
“So often it's surprising the people who refer to, if not an act of faith, at least a spiritual influence in their life over the years. I used to make a count of about 50% of people that would talk about it being significant,” he said.
“Over the years, I think it’s shifted – it’s becoming less institutional and more constitutional. People are a little less involved in churches, but more appreciative of the influences and motivations that have come from a church background or faithful parents, motivating them into the good works that they do.”
John went on to reflect on his favourite interviews with people of faith, and then played a clip of his interview with David Lange from just months before his death, in which he talks openly about his belief in heaven, his desire to be close to God and the good of church community.
Over the years, Real Life has welcomed some genuinely famous guests. We’ve hosted the likes of Buzz Aldrin, Sir Ian McKellen, Dr Ben Carson, Sam Neill, Dan Carter, Dame Jacinda Ardern, Sir Graham Henry, Nadia Lim, Stan Walker, Dame Alison Holst, Helen Clark, David Lange, Sir John Key, Suzy Cato and Dame Trelise Cooper.
We’ve also found ample opportunity to bring prominent Christians with interesting stories onto the show, including Sir Cliff Richard, Sir Dave Dobbyn, Anne Hegerty from The Chase, Sir Howard Morrison, Irene van Dyk, Tony Campolo and Jim Hickey.
On Sunday night, we received some wonderful feedback from Real Life listeners about their thoughts on the show. Here’s a small sample:
Congratulations John for 20 years so far. He's the kind of guy you know would be great value at a dinner party - able to chat to anyone about anything. He's always well researched about his guests and they often ask how he found out something obscure about them. Great show John, I hope you feel proud of your contribution and longevity.
Congratulations, John, on a wonderful career. I have enjoyed listening to all of your interviews. Thank you for sharing your gift to speak and bring out the person's personality
Been listening from day 1 (because mum made us at the start). Very proud of the dedication and insightful interviews over the last 20 years. Lots of love from your son, Guy :)
Thank you for your support of Real Life as we continue our work to make these conversations about faith, spirituality and God more commonplace in mainstream media.