Tampons, Tarot & The Rise Of Magical Thinking

Published Sep 6, 2024, 6:40 AM

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How woo woo are you? From astrology and tarot readings to the app everyone is using - we unpack why everything magical thinking is back in fashion.

Plus, a recommendation that Holly, Mia and Jessie equally loved, a book just for you and a lil' treat for your dog. 

And, we wrap up the week with best and worst, which includes: a head bump, geezer rockers and friendship.

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CREDITS:

Hosts: Holly Wainwright, Mia Freedman & Jessie Stephens

Executive Producer: Ruth Devine

Senior Producer: Emeline Gazilas

Audio Production: Leah Porges

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast.

Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded on.

Hello and welcome to.

Mamma Mia out loud and to our Friday show, which is the one when we take a breaks of the news cycle and we all have a little legs that loud. It's just like will think of something new to say there? Today is Friday, the sixth of September, and I'm Holly Wayne right, I'm Mere Friedman.

And I'm Jesse Stevens.

And on the show today, how woo woo are you? You see what I did there?

Why?

I like rhyming like pums and silliness like we're not pun but that's not a pum, that's just a rhyme.

Rhyming like doc.

It's a bit of Friday fun.

Why everything magical thinking is having a very big moment. Also, we all have the same recommendation this week because we went on a hot date together. But also for your weekend pleasure, we have a book for you and a little treat for your dog and head bumps, Geezer Rockers and my new crush. It's best and worst. But first, Mia.

In case you missed it. There's a lot to learn from your period blood, and I've recently been reacquainted with mine, which was not what I expected in twenty twenty four.

But anyway, that's not about my complete menopause. Whatder is thinking? It's very weird's been going through fourteen.

Minutes starts that, it stops and starts, Jesse, My uterus has very main character energy. Okay. Medical experts are now drawing data out of tampons and pads, with some startups hoping to shed light on some poorly understood diseases. This is actually one of those things where you go, why did no one think of this earlier? A special menstrual pad has been designed with a removable strip to collect blood samples for clinic tests. I have to actually go and get some blood tests just to check my levels of various things, and I'm like, I don't really want to go. It's annoying, it's time consuming, Like it doesn't hurt that much, but it's not.

And here's some blood I prepare elk. There's a lot of people who have phobias of needles, who faint friends.

We're not doctors. I don't know if the menstrual blood is. You can literally just swap it out for the stuff in your arm. But I can't tell you lots about to tell.

A company in the US has done some research that's shown menstrual blood can be used not for everything. It can be used to monitor blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Because on any given day, I love this statistic. About eight hundred million people around the world are on their period. Yes, a lot of blood.

It's weird that we sample literally every other goo. You do your urine, sample, you do sample, you do it. It's not you do everything. Why have we been wasting our blood?

We swab cells from our cervix. You know now we can do that. Why can't we just squeeze out like a wet ex our pads or our tampons, pop it in the male and off we go living our lives.

I read I was reading anybody do that? It's an article, and apparently there was an initial resistance.

Don't send it to us anyway.

You won't believe this. There was an initial resistance to this new thing of checking period blood because there was an I quote an ick fact.

Oh my god, So people are like other blood is fine. It still sample, s sample, are really here for a that snot that's all over those COVID tests. We love that.

Blood. Jermaine Greer, when she wrote The Female Eunich in the seventies or in the late sixties professionalism, I'm so sorry anyway, she said something about you not a real woman, or you haven't lived unless you've tasted your own menstrul.

She said, if you consider yourself liberated, then may I suggest that you taste your blood?

And actually called it.

Her point was, you have internalized disgust towards your own body.

You haven't tasted it.

No, I don't think you have to taste it did.

Work well quite well as a lipstain, though, talking I'm like, have I have smelled it? But I think it would work well as a lipstaine. I like that.

Listen to my internalized misogyny coming out all over MIA's lips.

Taro Tech and the Age of magical Feeling. I listened to a podcast this week called Critics at Large that drew on a number of pop culture examples from the new season of True Detective, which Holly and I watched, to a bunch of new books where magic and the occult are very prominent themes. You are seeing them everywhere. It's interesting as well given our recommendation last week, which was Leone Moriarty's book called Here One Moment, which interrogates our fascination with fortune tellers and predicting the future. This podcast talked about how a financial crisis like the GFC historically orients people more towards the woo woo. So from taro to astrology, it's about trying to find certainty in uncertain times. Mysticism, the podcast says, has permeated mainstream culture. You might have heard of an app called Coaster, which we all downloaded this morning because we had f mat. Yeah.

I hadn't heard about it, but when we're in the office, everyone will come in in the morning and say, what's your coaster? And I thought they were saying coaster like a drink's coaster.

Ahem.

Having someone who's quite obsessive about putting coasters down and it's very annoying, and I'm like, don't make me put down coasters at work. Criche.

No, you've probably seen people post them on Instagram. I recognized the font and stuff, but it is I quite I looked up how it kind of markets itself, the astrology app that deciphers the mystery of human relations through NASA data and biting truth.

Yes, bite, so I signed up? Did you sign up?

Yeah?

I did.

I didn't understand.

It immediately told me about NASA and how very accurate it was, and then it told me today's little snippet. You're over due for a wild and chaotic adventure, aren't we all? I'm so overdew for a while and chaots.

I went to the movies on Monday nights. I've had my wild and care convention for the week, thank you very much.

Basically, it looks at your star sign, and it turns out that this speculation economy is worth billions and billions of dollars and it's expected to rise. So what do we think this age of magical thinking is all about? Why we suddenly obsessed with star signs and terror cards? And do we really believe in it? Holly? Did it make you think that your day would actually go in a different direction?

No?

I find it so interesting that astrology in particular is back, because when I worked in women's magazines, the star pages were the most popular, without question, right, people were obsessed and they would be like, Oh, the astrologer who's on Okay is really good, or the astrologer who's on Women's Day is really great.

What was athenas Star Woman.

Athena Star Woman was a really big celebrity astrologer, and I kind of thought that all that was really uncool and had died out. And my mother in law, my late mother in law, who we were in many ways, as we've discussed before, was obsessive about star science. You'd walk into her house and she always had it open in the magazines and she was always like talking to about more and I thought it was a Nana thing. So I impressed with this rebrand. And when I was digging into it, is.

That like how color seasons were, And when I first heard about them again, I'm like, oh, no, that's so old. But it's so old that it's new.

It's new again.

Every generation discovers it again.

They're saying that it is, as you've already alluded to, Jesse, some of the sort of more highbrow examination of this is about gen Z in particular, feeling very insecure about the future. The world has never been more on certain things have never been moving faster, so you're kind of grabbing onto signs of meaning. And also, which is a slightly less flattering idea, is that they're also a generation, although I think this is just all young people who were very self obsessed and self focused, and it's like, tell me more about me, tell me some more things about me and why I'm unique and special in the universe. So I think that's always really well tapped into. And then the other thing that you couldn't not ignore, I suppose on a broader scale, is that although Western cultures in general, our levels of religiosity is that a work it is is dropping and has been dropping, although surging in some quarters and communities and age groups, were still all looking for meaning. Right, So, even though we might not necessarily subscribe to conventional religions and belief systems, were still leaning into spiritualism.

But did tarill or star signs give us any meaning or do they just offer glimpses.

Of what they will? They make you think there's a plan, Yeah, yeah, they make you think that there's something else, And I think that it's no accident that that's happening now. In the same way that conspiracy theories, whether it's QAnon or conspiracy theories, on the left are having this huge resurgence because there are some really scary things that are happening. There's wars, there's COVID, there's Trump, this all of these things. And what's interesting to me is that organized religion has become kind of uncool. Like even saying you believe in God not in all circles, but people will give you a little bit of a raised eyebrow. It's almost like saying you don't believe in sex before marriage. It's like, I don't know what the kind of social equivalent of prude is, but it feels a bit like that.

It's been culturally quite denigrated, and there's a real snuk. There's a cultural snuk about a religion.

The idea of someone not being an atheist. It's like, what you believe in God, I've just noticed that in conversation. It's not my view, but I've just noticed that. And yet these same people who would scoff at organized religion, and anyone who believes in you know, Judaism or Islam or Christianity might be like right down with co star and their star science and taro, which is equally you know.

That's harmless. Harmless is harmless. Yes, it's harmless.

I see. So you're saying that religion can be harmful, can be I'm not saying it is, but no, no, no. It has been known to.

Start the odd war or two, let's be honest, threat, And yet Taro is not starting a lot of wars. Not really.

But is Taro symptomatic of a culture that has a very complicated relationship with the truth and with facts and with life with facts?

Jesse?

I see people who will tell you, who will lecture you on facts and what's happening, and you need to know about this and challenging yourself. And you know the philosophical principle that they always talk about, which is kind of if you believe in something, then you've got to say what it would take for you to not believe in that, Like what's the factual evidence that each belief you have is based on. Like they would go on about that, and then they will do a Taro reading, and I'm like, I thought this was tongue in cheat. I thought this was a bit funny. Do we seriously believe in Taro and start?

Some people one hundred percent do And I don't think there's anything I think that you can be a fact driven person and also appreciate a bit of a sprinkle of magic. Right, Why not?

Right?

The world is confronting and difficult, and it's hard every day, and the reason why people gaze at a sunset and feel something. Not everybody, but a lot of people do is because they're like, that didn't have to be that beautiful. There must be a reason why there's that beautiful. And your reason for why that's that beautiful might be because God made it, but it also might be because something else, spiritual made it. Like I think that looking for spirituality, and in my opinion, all spirituality, whatever it is, has to involve a belief in something that can't be proven, yes, and so therefore it is some kind of magical thinking on some level. So whatever gets you through the night, is my position. If that's like, I've got anyone exactly, If I've got virgo rising, and that's why I was in a really snippy mood today, it's an excuse for me. You know.

The difference is though, starting award of that, No, the difference is religion. If you actually look at what almost every religion believes in, they're you know, more similar than they are different in terms of they emphasize things like love and compassion and forgiveness and empathy and things that are fundamental to social cohesion, like in a community. If you imagine years and years ago, and I would argue still today Intellectually you can sort of argue for those things, but they're just good, like being a good person is just important. It's kind of the point of like you know, religious texts and religious texts are closer you look, are all about looking out. It's really they're about community, and there's an idea that there's a God who's looking out for all of us and love thy neighbor, and it's about the fact that you're part of something bigger.

Well, they don't all believe that there's a god that's looking out for all of us. A lot of religions believe that there's a god who's only looking out for some of us, but others of us, who might be gay, or might believe in us, or might believe in other things, they're going to hell.

Yes, true.

I don't think every religion has this idea of this benign, benevolent god.

No. No, the idea that one of the things that's very attractive about a spiritual belief system, whether that be and I don't know if you could call astrology a spiritual belief system, but let's just roll with it. Not so many rules, not so many restrictions, not so many impingements on my freedom, and.

Never bad that's attractive, never like punishments, like there's never any sense of that if you do this, you will be punished in this true.

And look, obviously every spiritual or religious text can be interpreted in lots of different ways. And you know, we know Catholic people are Jewish people or whoever that very much are not homophobic or it feels like a light suggestion. But my thing with astrology, right, is that if we think of religion as something that fundamentally is about looking out, is astrology and tarro fundamentally about looking in? And is that a problem? Isn't it very naval gazing?

Yes?

I think it is. I think generally speaking, it is. And I think that's part of why you like it a lot at different phases in your life, because that's the best part of it, exactly, is it's all about you. So I think it serves some of the same purposes as you could argue religion does in people's lives, but not all. It's not a code to live by, is it. I think the place where it steps in for religion for some people, or spiritual arity for some people, is it makes you believe there's a plan, so you know there's something bigger than you that's guiding you, that's literally responsible for why that car splashed you in the street today, everything from that to why you picked a fight with your partner and now breaking up. So there's no system of values, there's no practices, there's no generosity. Think of any spiritual systems that are like that.

Well, I'm thinking if you consider yourself in and I'm being very charitable here, because you're absolutely right, Like religion has started was and it's got a lot of people. It's also saved a lot of lives in terms of you know, charity work and some of the best people you know do so in the name of God. But if you look at Waity.

Bad things have been done in the name of God too.

Yes, But if you know people in your lives, there'll be people listening and there will be people thinking. You know, I think about my grandmother, I think about my brothers, who their moral compass and their sense of values is so clear. And I went to a Catholic school. I do not identify as Catholic anymore necessarily, but I went to a Catholic school. And I've heard Tanya Plipaset talk about this. She's very similar My values and the way that I make decisions is very informed by the education that I had about, you know, being charitable, or being generous, or treating people like you would like to be treated, and all that kind of stuff. And I don't.

Think anyone's suggesting astrology steps in instead of that.

Well, what I'm saying is that if religion declines, and we are seeing it decline, and then people go, yeah, I've got to replace it with something, I've got to replace it with something. But that thing is just about getting up and it telling you that you're going to have a great day to day. Is it actually filling much up?

I don't think that's the swap we're making. I think the swap we're making is more about meaning right rather than action. Because I think, although I agree with you, this is a deep conversation. Although I agree with you that religious set of values guides much good work in the world, I think you can be a very good person without having religious values, right, and as we've.

Already got to get those values from somewhere.

And I don't think anyone's suggesting you're going to get that necessarily from secular, from your vocasco.

But you've got to get them from somewhere, and I'm just saying. I'm saying you won't get them from if I worship anything, which I don't.

I'm an atheist. It's nature, right, I'm obsessed with being in it, how beautiful it is. All of that kind of stuff. You could imagine a world if we were writing a dystopian movie. We could imagine a world where astrology becomes so important that we start categorizing people by what star sign they are, and like virgos are the ones who get all the top jobs, and ares are the ones who we make scrub the street. Like you could imagine all that that, but it's not going to happen. But the thing is is you could argue that if you use the nature umbrella as a spiritual argment, which lots of environmental people do, that is also about never taking more than you need from something, regeneration, treating people with respect, treating animals and think. But but you can build a belief system around anything.

I wonder though, if this is the more I read about it, and it depends. I mean, look, looking at your star sign or having fun with taro is one thing. But if you get really really into it, and if it's your whole TikTok feed, and if it's this industry that's totally taking over, then is the thing we worship the self?

But it already is. Have you looked on social I think, and I think that's capitalaxa. Yeah, well that's interesting, yeah, because it used to be you're talking about outwards versus inwards. We used to have our cameras facing out, but now we have our cameras facing in most of the time, like the idea of a front facing camera. If you'd have explained that to our grandparents back in the day when they were our age, they would not have understood what we meant. And so I don't know. I think the thing about astrology is that it doesn't discriminate. Astrology is completely literally agnostic, in that it doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, or it doesn't have those prejudicial or hierarchical or patriarchical it's very equal values. Yeah, it's completely choose your own adventure. Whereas there's so much discrimination in the name of religion and so much hurt and damage that has been done and is still being done in the name of religion. That's that's actually never hurt anyone.

What did your coastar say? I would like some explanation from the cooler people at the table than I am. Jesse, do dirty clothes? What a state sales? Duct tape? I have no idea duct tape, aimelessness, wet cement, load bearing? Dolph, what's going on?

Do social media?

She's cool, she's into coast. Come and tell us about coast. How do I live my life? I want to live my life according to this new relief system. How do I do that?

Well, you just lean into it.

Where your dirty clothes? Today? Maybe wrap yourself?

Yeah, maybe shop a little bit online for some estate sales. Fix a few pieces of clothing with some ductape hanging up.

Don't go near wet cement. Today is not the day for it.

Online estate sales, no wet cement, however, it would be the day of.

No load bearing. Don't you get a thing up today? Nothing, not even that pen.

Give it to Jesse.

Apparently today I'm not meant to be a vigilante, but candle lights are yes.

Do you know what? Though, I can see the appeal because I am overdue for a wild and chaotic conventure this. I opened this and I told me that, and I was like.

Yes, yes, I'm going this weekend.

I'm going to do something wild.

Maybe like two on my star. Because I would not like a wild and chaotic conventions would say something different.

So can I ask you both? In the podcast I was listening to, he had someone read out he's terror cuts, and I'm going to read out what she didn't.

I'm quite worried, but I would never get my cards around. I've never been to a so this is.

This is what the person said. And I want you both to imagine that I'm reading your cuts. You are on a mission, a journey. You are currently reaping what you sew. You've been planting seeds for a long time, haven't you, and everything has sprung. You're about to take on more work in the future. Does it apply?

Of course?

Yes, see, this is the genie. I think that writers learn a lot from them. I think writers can learn a lot. This is why Leone's new book is Fantastic. Writers can learn a lot from psychics and taroor readers, because good ones they're just good at reading people. So you walk in him and I judge you a thin slice you pretty quickly age are you wearing a ring? You know, like, do your boobs look like you may have had a baby lately? Do you look tired?

Oh?

Yeah, yeah. There will be people getting offended by this, and I'm just desclaring my cards that I come from my other side of my family. It's very psychic. But I can since like you, and I could probably make some guesses about the things I should.

Tell you about being at a cross roads. I'll tell you that you are and you've.

Been going through a lot of changes.

And as a man, I can see a man probably.

Not ray hair, You're probably not getting any sleep, and yeah, all the things. But the thing that's interesting about it is I've got friends who are very into this stuff, and they will travel around the city and they will swap their tarow people and will do fairy cards when we go away and stuff. I'd be so scared because it often starts fights. Because when your friends read your cards for you, there's always they've got their reasons. They're like, oh, you have to stand up for yourself more. Yeah, you should be standing up for I really think he pushes you around.

Pull the card of standing up for yourself or like.

Whatever it is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just your friends trying to have an intervention with you about how much heat.

Be more generous. It's like, yes, because you never do pay for dinner the fairies.

No, but you're a I mean, I imagine it's all just written by AI. Right, well, it's about to be, if it would be, I'm about to live my.

Whole life based on this.

I mean, I I don't hate that for it, but I just think it sounds fun. I'm going to download it.

Can I ask? Because I feel like I've been very judgmental of the tarot card readers and the people who love their star sign. I am this coming from genuine place. Can you explain to me the appeal and your relationship with it and how much you believe it and how it's useful to you to me too?

Me too.

The other place it crosses over very clearly with religion is that when you are searching for something just how to break up, to leave your job, you've lost someone you are like, I gotta go to the psidekick because we all want to believe there's some cress.

You're at a cross the race. I can see a decision in your future.

Hell, it's Friday, that is its recommendation time. Who wants to start off? Actually, let's start off with our group wreco let's which I'm taking as my reco because I'm lazy. So what did we do on Monday night? MAA?

On Monday night? I suggested, completely out of character, that we go to the movies to see Blink Twice. I can't remember how or why it was in our group chat. We were talking about it. For some reason. I just was evangelical because I'd been to the movies the week before, so suddenly I'm hyper fixated on going to the movies.

We talked about it a little bit because of the trigger warning situation. That's right, Blink Twice is a horror film.

So Mia said. Mia said, I absolutely hate horror films. They're not my thing. That's why I thought it was interesting.

Why am I going?

We were like, why are we going to see a horror film where men?

I nearly pulled the pin because I was very tired. It was Monday. Who goes out on a Monday? And then also I read I was listening to a review and they were saying that there was a very graphic six violence scene in it, you warned us. And then I was like, guys, do we really want to go and see it? And you guys are like yes, And so I bought the tickets. We went along Monday night. After we recorded the show. We all met there.

We all thought it was great, very top line on this recommendation, So Asma said director by Zoe Kravitz, who's an actor who's very impressive, good extraordinary direction, and this movie is about top line. We're not gonna give you any spoilers, but this movie is about appears to be about two young women who go to an island, a billionaire's island, with a charismatic but possibly sinister billionaire, and there are other girls there and they think they're having a great time, and then it appears, no, they are not.

That is kind of what it's about. One of the best movies. I've definitely the best movie of the year for me that I've seen in years, and I can't stop thinking about it.

We're going on my island for a few days.

Do you guys want to come? Did we just jut off to a billionaires island with a bunch of strangers. This is not a stranger, he's Pulo King. But there is it? Okay? Do your eye? Can't you feel it?

There's something back this place, you know when you walk out, and you just need to read everything ever written. The cast is phenomenal, had my attention the whole time.

Not everybody loves it. When we came out, googled our reviews. They're mixed. I saw one about how this is the latest in a line of me two movies and aren't we fatigued with always assuming the worst about everybody?

Jeffrey Epstein, it's very jeffreyps.

It's very If you've seen get Out, I would compare.

It together enormously so. And Zoe Kravitz says that she was inspired by get Out very much, and so that's a deliberate.

She's not in it. She wrote and directed her Tatum is in it. And there's so much behind the scenes gossip, which of course I read all about. They met when he was cast. She didn't even know him, but she wanted him for this role because she wanted someone really charismatic, but then who could go dark.

The lead is a British actress called Naomi Aki. She is amazing it. We loved it, but I would just say trigger warning. I would recomon and it to you if you can handle horror, if you can handle suspense, and if you don't mind being like, oh, Mia spent a lot of it looking away, not we've got past cleaver and smart and funny and past it we did.

My reco is something completely at the other end of the spectrum. It's something I've discovered on YouTube, a channel called dog TV. And the way I discovered it is that I was looking after Luna and she was a bit sick and we got home and she just needed very street to no screens. We don't do screens until how old juicy.

Well, I said, before one, but then she got to one and I was like, still, let's not.

Do so trying not to do screens, and I remembered that the thing about screens, even from when my kids were little, is that what's bad about them, particularly is the very quick cuts that we're used to, and that is very hard for little brains to process because they need things to be quite slow. So there was some videos that I.

Used to put this story taking me to a place where you've asked for no screens. Grandma Mia just overrode it. Shit turned the screens on.

You know.

It's a funny thing actually because at my house, Luna gravitates towards the remote. The other day she put the remote on and she knew how to put the Wiggles on the TV.

And I never played the Wiggles.

No, it wasn't you, it was the other grandmother. So I don't think my wishes are being respected. But you know this is this is twenty twenty flock.

We're not gonna apologize anyway. At my place, it's wholesome fun with dog TV. So what dog TV is? It's not even for children. Because I thought I'm going to google maybe just some pictures of dogs.

I thought it was for dogs. It is for dogs.

That's what's so funny. Channel Dog. Each video is like twelve or twenty four hours you put it on, and it's actually to keep your dogs calm when you're not home.

What happens on it.

Dogs at the past.

So it's just dogs from in slow motion, all different dogs. But like but with beautiful, calming piano music. And what was funny is that Luna loved it. And because she just never screens, Luna loved it. She didn't watch it for long, but she was so sick. She just needed She was just sad, and so she was just looking at it for a bit and dog dog and also my dog then started looking at it, got really into it, and she has a Border Collie and then just started standing up and looking at it. She didn't bark, but she was like, I quite like this TV show too, so I'm gonna try to get home background. Also, you know, like if you're working and you want something on but you don't necessarily want talking, it's incredibly calm.

I told her, next next time you pick up'll be on TikTok.

It's not Jesse I'm afraid of. It's Luca. Jesse is very tolerant of things. It's Luca who when I first gave her some chocolate cake and sent the cute video, Luca's response was not ideal.

You were like, how cute and gord her first chocolate cake.

That's my eco.

My recommendation is a book that I read a little while ago and it's just come out this week. I get sent a lot of books early to read, as we've said with Leanne's, and I actually read very few of them. That's not a lot of time. But I opened this one and I couldn't stop reading it. It is called All I Ever Wanted was to Be Hot by Lucinda Price, who you might know as Frooms. She's on Instagram and TikTok and everything.

I heard of her.

I think she's around my age, around thirty and great title. Is it a memoir, Yes, it's a memoir, but it's thematically this is the thing with someone like Frums like I knew she was really funny. She's a comedian and content creator. I knew she was funny. I didn't know she could write. So when I started reading this and saw how insightful she was, particularly about binge eating disorder and plastic surgery, that kind of stuff, it was the millennial slash sort of gen Z experience captured in this was so refreshing. X I think you will.

So.

She has written about going to a plastic surgeon at fifteen who confirmed to her that her no was too big and she had a nose job at sixteen She also says that one of her first coherent thoughts she remembers having, which you've talked about me out, was I should be blonde. I need to be blonde, like at five, knowing that as a brunette, I'm a woman, I should be blonde. And is she blond? She was blonde for a bit. Now she's brunette again, which I think is probably symbolic. But she said a friend said to her, oh, can you send me that article you wrote a little while ago, And she went on to Google, and you know how Google auto predicts, So she wrote Frooms Diatada and an auto predicted Froom's weight game. That's what everyone had been googling. So she just writes about recovering from an eating disorder, what it's like to then inhabit a different body. She's done this clinical trial that's actually really innovative and exciting. It's a really really good book. So if you're in that generation, if you resonate with that, which is at the first twenty to thirty years of your life, especially where all I want is to be hot, yeah, then this is for you.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we drop new segments of Mum and me are out Loud just for Mumma me. As subscribers follow the link in the show notes to get your daily dose of out Loud and a big thank you to everyone who is already subscribed. It's time for our best and worst moments of the week, where we look at our personal lives but not too personal. Although maybe how's that for an introduction.

And that sounds exciting?

Holly, do you want to go first? What's your worst of the week.

My worst of the week has actually been bringing me a lot of joy, but it's also one of those oh my god moments. My worst of the week is the enormous global fuss about the Oasis reunion.

Right.

I don't think you two are very bothered about this because it's not your world. But last Friday, the only thing that was on the radio when I had the radio on in the car and at home. The only thing it was all over the internet on any British site. The only thing anyway, was like Oasis are reforming, They're doing all these shows in Britain and you're going to be able to get tickets tonight. And then all the gen X men in particular, but not only in England lost their minds in a Taylor Swift esque fashion on Saturday.

Yes, I was online and our CEO she was like, I can't talk. I'm in the middle of Oasis. Yes, Frenzy, so can I just ask her? I didn't know what she was talking about.

Those two brothers had had a big falling out.

So Oasis. If you do need any background, there was a time in popular culture, particularly in Britain, but not only when they were the biggest band in the world in an all consuming way like pre internet, right really but wonderful. Yeah, they had two albums that were absolutely enormous and it was a soundtrack for a generation and all that stuff. I can literally remember where I was the first time I heard Oasis, like their first single, and it became all consuming. And they're from Manchester, which where I'm from, which was very exciting for all the man unions anyway, blah blah. So they are reforming after a very long hiatus because they don't talk. The guy writes all the songs is Nold Gallagher. The guys the front man is Liam Gallagher. They don't talk to each other. They haven't talked to each other for ages. But to be honest, if you don't just play along with the fairy tale. They weren't doing that well by the time they broke up, you know, like they had those two albums that everybody was obsessed with and then they kind of pitted it out a bit and they've both had solo careers. But anyway, long story short, they're reforming these gigs, biggest thing ever. But the reason why it's my worst is because you get moments in time sometimes where it's like you look in the mirror and you go, oh, we're the old people now. I have such clear memories of coming to Australia with my Oasis cassettes Hello in my backpack and listening to them as I was driving around the outpack and stuff. But also there are all these great videos tiktoks of middle aged men trying to get Owasis tickets, largely being assisted by their teenage and young adult daughters. That's crying their eyes out. And the thing that's very men are crying their eyes out with excitement that they get to go and see Oasis. And the thing that's very confronting is that you look at these men and you go, look at all those old blokes, got all those old blokes and then you're like, oh my god, those are my friends, that's my boyfriend, that's my like we used to be the young core people and now it's granddad having a cry on.

I was hearing this morning that there was a thing where people were going, I can't believe Oasis is having this big concept because you know they went viral for thirty seconds on tickets.

Oh my god, play one song. Which song's gone viral?

I'm not sure, but surely it's wonderful. It's like, I'm obviously not going. Our CEO, Nat is going. She got tickets to two. She's gone all the way to England to watch them. But in Manchester and in Edinburgh are amazing. So my worst was the reality check that is the Oasis reunion. My best look. I was going to do potatoes and then I just remembered that you two are going to take the piss out of me. So I found something else because my am potatoes at the weekend. It was very exciting. I haven't done anything with them, but the excitement was just that And I won't tell you if you want to know, it's in my niche veggie content on my Instagram.

That was great.

I loved it anyway, I found a new guilty pleasure that crosses over as the eco. You know how, I'm always very snooty about reality shows, always have been. There is a genre of reality show that I have come to embrace lately. When Brent's away or when I'm on my own hotel, need a bit of calm down. I watched those real estate ones from really fancy places.

Oh what have you been watching?

So my new one and this is my new crush, right, I've discovered the Paris line. Yeah, you know how has this been hiding from me for so long?

This is the higher brow selling Sunset.

Yes, it's called the Parisian Agency, right, And it's one of those reality shows where charismatic real estate agents take you around really fancy houses and then they build in some bullshit reality storylines along the way.

I was just watching something met the Manhattan White.

I watched that too. The Paris one follows a family who have four unbelievably hot suns Have you seen that?

Why did you not share it with me?

Because I just felt I was very into selling Sunset and it just didn't do it for me. I felt like maybe in the first episode, I didn't see enough houses.

They're speaking in Frinch, Yes, they are speaking in French.

But this family run a real list that They're all very charismatic and beautiful and articulate, and they are showing fancy people around beautiful French houses, and their four sons all work in the family business. The very end mess. You'd like that, and you'd like that mean, and all of their sons are ridiculously good looking and speaking French. So this is my dog TV. This is what I've decided. I just want to put it on in the background of my life and it makes me feel better about the world. And that was my best of the week. Thank you?

Where can I watch that Netflix? Oh?

Sorry, the Parisian Agency and there are I'm happy to discover about four seasons. So that takes care of all my mindless pleasure for the next year or so.

My worst of the week that I bumped my head and it's a bruce, I know, thanks for telling me along with everybody else. So I was in the room where Lunas days when she comes over, and I was unplugging the heat because it was very warm on the weekend. I've got terrible spatial skills and I leant down to unplug the heater, didn't see the window sill and clocked my forehead on the window sill, like really saw stars. And I just went, oh, you know, like I'm kind of used to it, bumping into things and hurting myself, kind of didn't really think much of it. I had a little egg, but couldn't we bothered to get any ice, just moved on with my life. No one really mentioned it over the weekend. I forgot about it. Then by midweek, which is like a good five days after it happened, everyone at work started asking me about it. It was over on the side and it like it started to go like yellow and blue and all of that. And it's one of those things that's weird. When you have a bruise or an injury like that, people will kind of make weird jokes about how you hurt yourself and it's just a weird conversation to be in, and then you find yourself telling what happened, and then and they're like, oh, is that really And it's just been odd. It's been an odd week. So that's my bumped head. My best is that we finally have had our new chief content officer. We've never had that role before. It's been part of me trying to replace parts of myself at work, the part that has to kind of be in charge of content, which you both have been at various times, but you both fucked off thanks a lot, like the music stops shit. So I've tapped someone who is taking this on. It basically is leaving the whole content side of the business. Huge, huge job. And it happens to be after looking and talking to all kinds of people and looking for the right person for a few years. It's someone I used to work with back in magazines. Her name is Zarah Curtis, and what's so lovely about her starting and she's done the most amazing thing since we worked together at Cosmo. She was a sales director and I was the editor and so we were real parts and is in crime of running that business because magazines were businesses back then. So she's gone and done extraordinary things since then in content, in TV production and all these things. And we're back working together, so she knows a whole lot of stuff. But we've just got that easy rapport. And for me, the hardest thing with working with new people is them learning me. I'm an acquiet taste, and I can be challenging to work with because I'm strange and I moved.

Fast and let let her talk.

I'm just eccentric and seems to jump in and say, yeah, but you're lovely. No, I know I'm good things as well, but I'm specific and I am reasonably unique. I mean, we all are, so anyway, it's just so lovely that she knows me, like she was just saying. She told the story when we had an all hands meeting about oh, I've already seen me as boobs. One of the first things we had to go to a function together, and we were in the back of the car going to David Jones fashion show because they're a client, and she just like whipped a bra off and put it in my handbag, and it's like.

We've got that level of should have been arrested for that different times.

Yeah, welcome Zarah. And that's been my best of the week.

My worst, which kind of links to my best, is that I have had a few weeks where there are so many like family health issues. We met for Father's Day on Sunday, and I think half the people there had been to hospital in the last three weeks.

But I shouldn't laugh.

They were all there. Well you can laugh because they were all there.

Thank you, sitting at the table.

Oh my goodness. Honestly, think about how hard they're working. Half my family, just my family have been taking up press. Your family's big, and my family is big. Anyway, that links to my best which was Father's Day. My cousin Simon's birthday is always around Father's Day, so he kind of pulls focus. So we had a big cake for him and everything. But it was the first year, so lucas second Father's Day, but it was the first year where Luna created something for him. So I've been going to this place called Bubba Desk, which is the best invention of all time, where I work downstairs and then there's like a childcare center upstairs.

It's like a coworking space with childcare.

Yes, yes, And so you can have a little monitor where you can see them sleeping and then if they need to call you, if they can go oh, actually Luna's really upset or I can't get her down for her sleep, they can message you.

Praise be. There should be one on every corner.

And there should be and like I can go and visit her during the day, which I found was actually not a great idea because then she gets sad on I live again. So anyway, but when they were there, they were like, we're going to do some crafts for Father's Day. And they made the bane of every parent's existence craft every parent, but particularly Luca Levine like his thing about clutter and mess. They made a fridge magnet and they so how cute is it? And they put a paint brush in Luna's hand, and the story was that she was so disgusted by the mess of the paint and she didn't know what a fridge magnet was for, and she hated the activity.

And I knew that Luca.

Would love that story, so I gave it to him and I said, she is your daughter. She hates mess, she hates sticky.

She she also hates clatter. She doesn't understand the purpose.

Now fridge, my dad will hate this. Yeah, so Luca got given that I love and now it is the single only thing on our fridge because I know every time Luca looks at it and he's like, Luna, no one understands me, Like.

Oh, that's so cute.

It's gorgeous.

That's all we've got time for today and this week. Thank you to all of you out louders for being with us as we've got through another week. Please have a lovely weekend. Thank you for listening. The executive producer of Bahamia out Loud is Ruth Devine. Our senior producer is Emmalin Ga Zillis Audio production from Leah Porge's, and we have a wonderful social producer and Isabelle Dolphin.

Before we go, we often have little promos and we tell you about what's on our subs episode. We thought we try something different this week. We are giving you a little taste of those subs episodes. You can subscribe and listen to them in full by the link in the show notes. So here's a little taste of Thursday's subscriber episode where we did a little ask Me Anything session and answered all your burning questions.

Do you ever just not feel like talking on the pod?

Oh? Yes?

And what do you do to get into the zone again?

I remember this is my first month at Mamma Mia and Lee Sales came in and she was doing a Q and A and I went, I'm gonna ask for a question, because I have one question I want to ask someone like Lee Sayle's and I said, are you ever not in the mood? Did you ever?

Yeah?

I asked her that question, you say, because I thought, I don't understand how Lee Sales gets on television every night, and like you've had a bad day, You've got per mess, you've got a headache, you're shitty whatever, Like how are you so even? How do you show up like that? I remember her.

You can listen to the rest of that episode by clicking the link in the show.

Bye bye by shout out to any Mamma Mia subscribers listening. If you love the show and you want to support us, subscribing to Mamma Mia is the very best way to do it. There's a link in the episode description.

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