Binchtopia

Is our food getting shittier, literally? Join Julia and Nick as they conduct an investigation into the complicated and deeply gross history of food safety. From murderous milk and The Jungle to RFK Jr. and diarrhea lettuce, they unpack the creation of our modern food system, America's addiction to ignoring science, and how one contaminated farm can suddenly become everybody's problem. Digressions include Johnny Crunkleseed, the FDA's young hoe era, and Insect Fragments George.

This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Kylie Finnigan and edited by Livi Burdette.

To support the podcast on Patreon and access 50+ bonus episodes, mediasodes, and more, visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

SOURCE LIST

In the aftermath of the Lindsay Clancy trial, Julia and Eliza lock in for an investigation of the postpartum period, exploring the seismic changes that happen to your brain and body after giving birth. The girlies trace the shocking history of postpartum care, the highly misunderstood conditions of postpartum depression and psychosis, and the abysmal state of parental leave in America. Warning — this episode will leave you mad as hell!!! Digressions include welcoming new binchie babies into the world, being freed from the psychic torture of Tyra Banks, and having empathy for bad British food.

This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Kylie Finnigan and edited by Livi Burdette.

If you're looking for postpartum support, Postpartum Support International offers support groups, provider directories, helplines, and other resources at https://postpartum.net/.

Carriage House Birth offers postpartum support groups and other resources at https://carriagehousebirth.com/.

To support the podcast on Patreon and access 50+ bonus episodes, mediasodes, and more, visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

SOURCES

A scoping study of postpartum mental health problems and associated factors: opportunities for research and practice

Beyond "Baby Blues"

Biological Aspects of Postpartum Depression

Brooklyn Mother Sentenced to 20 Years to Life in Prison For Killing Her Three Children

Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2025

Fact Sheet: Maternal Mental Health

From Pregnancy to Postpartum: The Dynamic Reorganization of the Maternal Brain

Google Benefits

Inequities in CPS contact between Black and White children

Maternal Mental Health Conditions and Statistics: An Overview

Matrescence: Lifetime Impact of Motherhood on Cognition and the Brain

Mother Who Drowned 3 Children at Coney Island Is Sentenced to 20 Years Drownings at Coney Island Mark the End of a Mother's Descent

Neuroanatomical changes observed over the course of a human pregnancy

OECD Members and Partners

Paid Family Leave Across OECD Countries

Paid Leave: State Family and Medical Leave Laws

Perinatal Depression

Physiology, Postpartum Changes

Postpartum Baby Blues

Postpartum anxiety is invisible, but common and treatable

Postpartum Care: An Approach to the Fourth Trimester

Postpartum Psychosis and Bipolar Disorder: Review of Neurobiology and Expert Consensus Statement on Classification

Postpartum Psychosis: Madness, Mania, and Melancholia in Motherhood

Pregnant mothers with strong family support less likely to have postpartum depression, study finds

Prevalence and Course of Unwanted, Intrusive Thoughts of Infant-Related Harm

Protecting body and soul in medieval childbirth

Rachel Moran, 'Making Sense of Postpartum Politics': Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America

Racial Disparities in Maternal and Infant Health: Current Status and Key Issues

The Baby Pinks: What to Know About Postpartum Euphoria

The Effect of Spousal Support on Postpartum Depression and Quality of Life

The hospital and the postpartum experience: a historical analysis

The Impact of Motherhood on Women's Career Progression: A Scoping Review of Evidence-Based Interventions

The Important Role of Partner Support in Women's Mental Disorders During the Perinatal Period. A Literature Review

The Intimate History of Confinement

The Landscape of Parental Leave-Taking in the United States

The phenomenology of postpartum psychosis: preliminary findings from the Massachusetts General Hospital Postpartum Psychosis Project

Understanding Infanticide in Context: Mothers Who Kill, 1870-1930 and Today

Waffle House Careers

What are Postpartum and Perinatal OCD?

What data does the BLS publish on family leave?

When can I go back to work after having a baby?

Who is Andrea Yates? A Short Story About Insanity

Women Should Rest for a Month After Childbirth—Myth or Fact?

Women With Postpartum Depression Experienced Brain Changes During Pregnancy, Study Finds

Binchtopia is on a little post-tour vacation this week, so we're releasing this healing episode from the vault <3 Join Julia and Nick in the desert at sunset as they recap the shrooms trip that finally healed them. Digressions include having extreme horse experience, society carrying the weight of Drake's pain, and the life affirming beauty of feeling it all. Plus, a crucial addendum recorded after Realizing Things on horseback.

This episode was originally released on March 25, 2026 as a Patreon exclusive. Become a patron today to support the show, keep us ad-free, and unlock our backlog of 50+ bonus episodes at patreon.com/binchtopia.

Julia is joined by Carina Hsieh, Deputy Features Editor at Women's Health and the writer widely credited with inventing the term "situationship," to revisit the term's origins and assess the current state of modern dating. They trace the history of dating from courtship and going steady to hookup culture and dating apps, unpack the anxious-avoidant trap, and examine whether dating advice reels, and other online rules actually protect women from heartbreak or just give them more ways to blame themselves. Digressions include the bygone thrill of being pinned, men who self-report as securely attached, and the horror of buying a cheater a PS5 with your own money.

Check out more of Carina's writing at Women's Health and follow her on Instagram @carinahsieh!

WE'RE GOING ON TOUR!!!! Find tickets for the Shake Up Your Life Tour at https://binchtopia.com/tour

This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Kylie Finnigan and edited by Livi Burdette.

Julia is joined by bestina and hospital chaplain Sarah Doumar to confront the only thing we are unfortunately promised in this lifetime: death. Together the girlies deconstruct how dying transformed from an intimate, familiar occurence to a hidden and medicalized taboo, unpacking the predatory funeral industry, the West's treatment of elders, and society's obsession with immortality. Plus, Sarah shares what sitting with dying patients has taught her about grief, fear, and spirituality. Digressions include tyrannical choir teachers, a sacred dream about Heath Ledger, and smoking hookah at the retirement village.

WE'RE GOING ON TOUR!!!! Find tickets for the Shake Up Your Life Tour at https://binchtopia.com/tour

This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Kylie Finnigan and edited by Livi Burdette.

To support the podcast on Patreon and access 50+ bonus episodes, mediasodes, and more, visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

SOURCES

A Third of Young Adults Are Still Living With Their Parents—as Old Taboo

Aging Out by Lucy Schiller

Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life

Becomes the New Normal Amid Soaring Costs

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Death Is Having a Moment

Death anxiety. The worm at the core of mental health.

Does The Internet Change How We Die And Mourn? Overview And Analysis

Good Grief

Growing Old in America by David Hackett Fischer

It's Mourning in America

It's Time to Let the Five Stages of Grief Die

Longevity increased by positive self-perceptions of aging

Mid-Late Victorian Mourning Dress

Mortal Remains: Death in America by Nancy Isenberg

Mourning during the Civil War

New study challenges notion that aging means decline, finds many older adults improve over time

Place of Death Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Poor Relief and the Almshouse

Senior Living History: 1930 - 1939

TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY

The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford

The Denial of Death and the Practice of Dying

The Hour of Our Death by Philippe Ariès

The FTC Funeral Rule

The other side of sadness: What the new science of bereavement tells us about life after loss.

The Trouble with Nursing Homes

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

U.S. centenarian population is projected to quadruple over the next 30 years

Western Attitudes Toward Death From The Middle Ages To The Present by Philippe Ariès

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Julia and Nick explore the dark side of shaking up your life — because sometimes, the shake TAKETH! From accidental military enlistment to having a warrant out for your arrest, they tell the stories of tremendous flops and binchies who rose from the ashes. Digressions include Nick's failed attempt at heterosexuality, a horrifying clown-centric production of Moby Dick, and Kaitlin Bennett x Soho House.

WE'RE GOING ON TOUR!!!! Find tickets for the Shake Up Your Life Tour at https://binchtopia.com/tour

Chat, are we cooked? Julia is joined by friend and mentor Dr. Jack Keefe to explore the ongoing epidemic of AI psychosis and the dire consequences of having a sycophant in our pocket. They trace the history of how technology has repeatedly reshaped our understanding of reality, from medieval nobles who believed their bodies were made of glass, telegraph operators struck by sudden paralysis, and tech moguls convinced they're living in The Matrix. Digressions include questioning the humanity of Mr. Beast, the stay tethered to reality challenge, and The Truman Show as a psychotic touchstone.

This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Kylie Finnigan and edited by Livi Burdette.

Check out Jack's work here: https://jack-keefe.com/

WE'RE GOING ON TOUR!!!! Find tickets for the Shake Up Your Life Tour at https://binchtopia.com/tour

To support the podcast on Patreon and access 50+ bonus episodes, mediasodes, and more, visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

SOURCES

"AI Psychosis" in Context: How Conversation History ShapesLLM Responses to Delusional Beliefs

'Americanitis': The Disease of Living Too Fast

An odd kind of melancholy: reflections on the glass delusion in Europe (1440-1680 - Gill Speak, 1990

Beyond artificial intelligence psychosis: a functional typology of large language model-associated psychotic phenomena - The Lancet Digital Health

Delusion content across the 20th century in an American psychiatric hospital

ELEPHANT: MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL SYCOPHANCY IN LLMS

Emotional Manipulation by AI Companions

From Paralysis to Fatigue | Book by Edward Shorter | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster

Hallucinations and electricity in the nineteenth century

Hallucinating with AI: Distributed Delusions and "AIPsychosis"

How AI and Human Behaviors Shape Psychosocial Effects of Extended Chatbot Use: A Longitudinal Randomized Controlled Study

Interpretations of Innovation: The Role of Technology in Explanation Seeking Related to Psychosis

Investigating Affective Use and Emotional Well-beingon ChatGPT

Nature of Persecutors and Their Behaviors in the Delusions of Schizophrenia: Changes between the 1990s and the 2000s - PMC

Neurasthenia and the Modern City: Genealogical Speculations on Capitalism-Urged Anxiety, Stress, and Suicide in North America, 1890–1920 - Phillip Gordon Mackintosh, 2025

On the Origin of the "Influencing Machine" in Schizophrenia

People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies

Polarizing remedies, attractive cures: Animal magnetism, mesmerism, and mind-over-matter treatments

Railway Neurosis and the Birth of Psychotherapy

Technological folie à deux: feedback loops between AI chatbots and mental health

'The algorithm is hacked': analysis of technology delusions in a modern-day cohort

The Evolution of Insanity

The Origin of the Influencing Machine in Schizophrenia (1919)

The people who think they are made of glass - BBC News

The Psychogenic Machine: Simulating AI Psychosis,Delusion Reinforcement and Harm Enablement inLarge Language Models

They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.

Victorian London - Disease - 'telegraphic paralysis'

When Old Technologies Were New : Thinking about Electric Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century

"You're Not Crazy": A Case of New-onset AI-associated Psychosis

This week, Julia is joined by artist and writer Mackenzie Thomas to discuss the beautiful and humiliating archive of the self. They revisit adolescent diary entries, being trolled by your middle school crush, the childhood-loneliness to Tumblr pipeline, and the power of turning your most embarrassing moments into art.

Digressions include The Rizzler being our generation's Shirley Temple, asking the CEO of Instagram for what you want, and dance moves that should be illegal for men to perform.

Check out Mackenzie's newest project here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fccuzvnb8JA and on Instagram @mackenzie

WE'RE GOING ON TOUR!!!! Find tickets for the Shake Up Your Life Tour at https://binchtopia.com/tour

This week, Julia is joined by Allegra to investigate the enduring, mythical appeal of the music festival. From medieval carnivals to Woodstock, and Coachella brand trips to FYRE fest, the girlies explore the human desire to build temporary utopias — and how festival outcomes range from communal transcendence and PLUR to corporate-branded slop and FEMA-level weather events. Digressions include Billie Eilish starring in The Bell Jar for some reason, the ouroborous of influencer video essays, and Allegra's parents getting matching plastic surgery on her birthday.

WE'RE GOING ON TOUR!!!! Find tickets for the Shake Up Your Life Tour at https://binchtopia.com/tour

This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Kylie Finnigan and edited by Livi Burdette.

To support the podcast on Patreon and access 50+ bonus episodes, mediasodes, and more, visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

SOURCES

19 Worst Things About Woodstock '99

After the Astroworld Disaster, a Reckoning

Altamont : the Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the inside story of rock's darkest day

Bakhtinian thought : an introductory reader

Burning Man: how a festival became a culture

Castlemorton 1992, the rave that triggered the ban

Castlemorton Common: The rave that changed the law

Criminal Justice & Public Order Act 1994, s.63 ("repetitive beats")

Crowds and Collective Behavior Get access Arrow

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy

From Woodstock to Coachella: The ultimate music festivals

FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened

Half a Million Strong: Crowds and Power from Woodstock to Coachella by Gina Arnold

Impact: From riots to crowd safety

'It was the peak of the flower power era': The story of the first ever Glastonbury Festival in 1970

How Music Festivals Became a Massive Business in the 50 Years Since Woodstock

Juggalos & the FBI "hybrid gang" label

Live Aid (1985)

Live Music in America: A History from Jenny Lind to Beyoncé

Lollapalooza's rise (Perry Farrell's acid precognition)

Monterey Pop

Murder at the Altamont Festival

Rabelais and His World

The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure

Of Other Spaces

The Oral History of Monterey Pop, Where Jimi Torched His Ax & Janis Became a Star: Art Garfunkel, Steve Miller, Lou Adler & More

Remembering Meredith Hunter

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Trainwreck: Woodstock '99

The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

The Music Festival That Time Forgot: Inside Steve Wozniak's US Fest

The Night Bob Dylan Went Electric

The Sacred and the Profane

The Society of the Spectacle

"This Film Was My Chance to Correct History": Questlove on Summer of Soul and the Oscars

The Pop Festival: History, Music, Media, Culture

Woodstock '99 Predicted America's Future

Woodstock 1999 Ends in Violence

Wattstax (1972), the "Black Woodstock"

Wattstax drew 100,000 people — this 1972 concert was about much more than music

What's behind the decline of music festivals?

Without Helicopters, There Wouldn't Have Been a Woodstock

Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music

Find tickets for the Shake Up Your Life Tour at https://binchtopia.com/tour