Glen MacKay
Episode 391
3 AUG 2026
He played cricket and rugby league in his youth and was very active sports-wise. At around 16 years of age he was introduced to tennis, got hooked by its international status, and around the same time watched films about the Olympics, becoming attracted to the storytelling. He fell into sports broadcasting and never looked back. As a TV producer with more than 25 years’ experience, he covered some of the world’s biggest sporting events, including seven FIFA World Cups, four Olympic Games, 19 Roland Garros tournaments, 17 Australian Opens, World Figure Skating Championships, and countless international sports broadcasts, working alongside many of the world’s greatest athletes. On the faith side, not only has he been to the Vatican three times, but four years ago he went to the Holy Land and made a film about it that even includes tennis star Serena Williams.
Notable guest quotes:
“My mum come from a staunch Catholic family whereas my father came from a family that was quite, questioning the Catholic faith; in fact, quite hostile to it.”
“The deal was, my mum wanted me to go to a Catholic school and have a Catholic education but my father – and pressure from his mum – was against that. So, my mum and dad reached a deal that I wouldn’t go to a Catholic school, but I would go to Catholic church every week.”
“In Australia at that time, even today, sport is very popular in Australia and in the suburbs of Sydney if you didn’t play sport, you basically got beaten up for being weak.”
“I think that’s one of my great blessings… I was very lucky that at that young age I kind of was in love with storytelling from a young age and I think that comes from listening to priests’ sermons and the interpretation of the Bible.”
“So, I borrowed my uncle’s camera, and I started taking photos of rugby league players and cricket players and most of my friends and people at school didn’t believe that I was taking those photos!”
“I was always appreciative of relationships, and I was always appreciative of, I think I’ve always been considerate, and I think that came from my mum and that also came from listening to priests’ sermons as well the importance of consideration. And so I think I’ve always been reasonably kind and considerate.”
“I’ve been to church in I can’t even remember how many countries; dozens, maybe close to a hundred. Yeah, I’ve been to a lot of churches in a lot of different countries.”
“I wanted to pay homage to priests’ sermons as part of the film and I wanted to have… a group of different priests from different places and tap into the power of sermons because I think that’s one of the powers and the beauties of the Catholic church and I think people who are not fortunate enough for – in my case I say blessed enough – to be part of the Catholic church, they’re not hearing those stories regularly.”
“Being in the sea of Galilee, that was a spot that just will live with me forever.”
“I’ve been fortunate enough to interview Serena (Williams) a few times, many times, and I was always curious – she’s a very religious devout Jehovah’s Witness, she’s very faithful. And I was always wondering what her take (is) on how much of her success is hard work and how much of her success is a God-given talent. And I’d been wanting to ask her that for years and one day I had the courage to do it and she gave me an incredible answer.”
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