Happy Friday EICritics. It's a full house of hosts again at EIC headquarters, hallelujah! This week, we're wondering if little pins add up to big outcomes? And why the internet has suddenly turned on Olivia Dean.

A lot went on at this year's Grammy’s which took place on Sunday night in LA. Kendrick Lamar won record of the year, Bad Bunny won album of the year and his reaction of disbelief and processing is already circulating as a meme, Olivia Dean was named as best new artist, and Billie Eilish won best song with Wildflower. But aside from the accolades, a big feature of this year’s ceremony- and something that’s been discussed a lot since- were the ICE Out pins that were worn by many attending - Kehlani, Billie Eilish and Finneas, both Justin and Harley Bieber, Joni Mitchell, plus a handful more. Should we be praising this, or questioning if celebrities scared to participate in true activism?

Next up, in 2022, one of the internet's favourite culture writers Rayne Fisher-Quann coined a term when she tweeted, ‘Ottessa moshfegh is on the verge of getting woman'd | can feel it (woman'd is what I call it when everyone stops liking a woman at the same time)’, we ask, is this happening right now to Olivia Dean?

Beth's been loving - Bridgerton

Ruchira's been loving - Oh,Mary! , Perfection

Oenone's been loving - The Count Of Monte Cristo

2025 was ICE’s deadliest year in two decades. Here are the 32 people who died in custody

What the “Ice Out” Pins at the Grammys 2026 Mean

the one about whether celebrities should also be activists

Does it matter when celebrities like Bad Bunny castigate Trump and ICE at the Grammys? You bet!

Being ‘Woman’d’ Is Becoming A Depressing Inevitability For Us All

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Hello EICrumpets! Welcome to Wednesday. For this week's Everything In Conversation we're talking about sex in films after actor and director Olivia Wilde responded to the statistic that almost half (48.4%) of Gen Z don't want to see as much sex in film and on TV. She said "I think the way that sex has been portrayed in film for a long time hasn’t been particularly realistic. There’s been this movement now towards authenticity, which is really good. So I choose to interpret that statistic maybe as Gen Z saying, ‘We don’t want to see inauthenticity anymore. We want to see real relationships, and we want to have something that feels more genuine.” 

Is she right that Gen Z are only rejecting poor representations of sex OR are they in fact a truly prudish generation who won't be happy until all love scenes are abolished and everyone involved put in jail? Let's find out!

Links:

Spotify - Diabolical Lies

Variety - Olivia Wilde Says Sex in Movies Hasn't Been 'Realistic' for a 'Long Time'

LinkedIn - Heated Rivalry and the Rejection of Romanticised Harm

The Guardian - Almost half of gen Z viewers want less sex on screen study finds

Ladbible - Gen Z Intimacy Statistics Revealed

The Guardian - Passages film review

Everything Is Content Porn Deep Dive Part One

Everything Is Content Porn Deep Dive Party Two

The Times - Gen Z want more realistic sex scenes. Here's why

The Guardian - Pornhub to stop new UK users accessing site from next week

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Hello EIChihuahuas,

We're back with a hot, steamy episode... Yes it's Heated Rivalry time!! We bravely tackle the series everyone in the US has already spoken about for months now (thank you HBO for edging the UK with a delayed release).

Next-up, Jameela Jamil has been drawn into the Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni arena thanks to text messages between her and her PR agent becoming public knowledge. We weigh in on the situation and her response to it all.

Finally we're back with some pop culture headlines and a live review of Cruz Beckham's music. Is he capable of becoming the most successful Beckham?

THANK YOU for listening to us. Please could you gift us a review on your podcast player app and share us with a friend? Love O, R, B xxx

In partnership with Cue Podcasts.

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This week Ruchira reccomended Sentimental Value and Diabolical Lies. Beth reccomended Sorry Baby and Conclave.

Do women love “Heated Rivalry” too much?

Why Are Women Obsessing Over Gay Hockey Smut?

Women are feral for Heated Rivalry. What does that say about men?

So, my private texts were leaked to the world...

What Jameela Jamil’s Texts Say About Her Feminism

Cruz Beckham - Optics

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello EICaramels,

As promised we're wading into the grim world of student loans, specifically the Plan 2 nightmare for UK students. Were we scammed aged 17/18 when we signed up to these loans? It's clear we weren't told that the terms i.e. the interest rates could change over time and significantly impact the amount we're paying back for the majority of our working lives.

Thank you as always to everyone who messaged in for this one. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the episode and your loan situation. Love O,R,B xxxx

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Scandalous student debts are crushing the economy

How do student loans work and when are they written off?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey EICapulets! To Brooklyn, or to Beckham? That is this week's question.

There was simply no way of doing this episode without discussing the biggest news of the week, which is a pretty big statement, all things considered. 

On Monday evening, Brooklyn Beckham took to his Instagram and posted a series of stories stating that he does not want to reconcile with his family. This comes after years of speculation about a rift between the Beckhams and Brooklyn and Nicola, a lot of which started after their 2022 wedding.

We discuss how and why this has taken the internet by storm, and what we make of it all.

Next up! Chloe Zhao's Hamnet is based on Maggie O'Farrell's novel of the same name. The fictional story follows Agnes Hathaway (played by Jessie Buckley) and William Shakespeare (played by Paul Mescal) as they lose their son Hamnet to the plague- and how this tragedy births the play Hamlet. Very little is known about Shakespeare’s life, so this story has been compared to fan-fiction. But just a lil fact check: several other plays, including two comedies, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It came between the death of Hamnet and the creation of Hamlet, according to The New Yorker.

Since the film’s release there’s been a lot of claims it's "grief porn". We get into it.

And lastly, whoever is doing 2016’s marketing needs a raise, after a nostalgia-based trend caused what feels like the entire internet to look back a decade to the days of Pokemon Go, Brexit, Beyonce’s Lemonade, Trump 1.0, Kylie lip kits and chokers to name but a few big moments and trends. For those of us who were old enough to own phones and participate in the culture and social media back then, throwbacks are aplenty. For those who missed it the first time around, FOMO is in full force. Harper’s Bazaar has called 2016 the “last good year”, and Glamour suggested it might be the last time we felt “hopeful”. According to TikTok, searches for 2016 surged by 454% in the first week of the new year and about 229 million posts have been made using their 2016 filter. But why?

We hope you enjoy, as always please do rate, review & subscribe!

Thank you to Cue for the edit.

Beth's been loving: The Silence Of The Lambs (the book), Emily In Paris. Ruchira's been loving Stranger Things and Dying For Sex & Oenone's been loving A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, The Night Manager

Brooklyn Beckham's statement

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Happy Wednesday! We hope your EIConcentration is feeling sharp as we dive into our conversation about a trend where boredom is the goal.

In a piece for The New York Times, called “They Want to Influence You to Do…Nothing’’ Alexander Nazaryan explores how boredom is the “unlikely star of a social media fad that has young people doing… absolutely nothing.” The rules? No screens, no talking, no music, no food, no games and no napping for a fixed amount of time. The point? Apparently to improve your attention span and break your addiction to scrolling on social media. 

And many people claim that it works, that after completing their challenge they feel energised, focused, creative and free. But there’s some skepticism too, mostly about the fact that so many of the people doing this are also filming it and posting it online. Can you really be that serious about fixing the impacts of too much internet if you’re still doing everything for the internet?

Thank you so much for all of your opinions and takes on this topic, we love being in conversation with you all.

O, R, B xx

The Guardian - Friction-maxxing: could less convenience lead to much more happiness?

Observer - How knitting became my scrolling antidote

NY Times - They Want To Influence You to Do... Nothing

Harvard Business Review - You Need to Be Bored. Here's Why.

The Guardian - Why it's good to be bored

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Morning EICitizens! And welcome to the Republic of Content. On this week's docket...

We head briefly over to Beverly Hills to discuss last Sunday's Golden Globes. What did we think of the winners and who do we deem the best dressed/worst behaved?

Then we get stuck into Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie's new sports comedy-drama fronted by Timothée Chalamet. In it he plays ruthlessly ambitious Marty Mauser, a shoe salesman with grand plans to become the ping pong world champ. The film is getting rave reviews (and has just earned TC his very first Golden Globe)- but what did we think? Worth the hype or just another tired tale of a selfish man with big ambitions?

Next up: Grok. 2026 started with mass digital violations, as huge numbers of women (and children) were targeted with deepfakes thanks to a new feature of Elon Musk’s AI tool which allowed digital undressing of real photos. As of this Wednesday Grok will apparently now ignore instructions to generate sexualised images, but we argue that the damage is already done. What do we think is behind this trend (spoiler: it's misogny) and what else should be done?

Finally we investigate if people online are growing tired of content about useless male partners, especially if their wives and girlfriends won't listen. Comment threads are now full of the same sentiment: if you're not going to leave him, then leave us out if it. Is this a fair response? And does it speak to a cultural divide or just a digital one?

Thank you SO MUCH for listening- as well as for your lovely messages and reviews. Please keep them coming as we love hearing from you and it helps us continue making the podcast. Love B, R, O x

In partnership with Cue Podcasts.

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This week Beth was loving The Golden Globes coverage (e.g. the outfits), Ruchira was loving Industry (available on iPlayer in the UK and HBO elsewhere) and Oenone was loving Marty Supreme (in cinemas now!).

The Hollywood Reporter - Timothée Chalamet and Josh Safdie: How We Made 'Marty Supreme'

BBC - X could 'lose right to self-regulate', says Starmer

The Telegraph - Elon Musk's X stops bikini bot undressing women

The Guardian - 'Add blood, forced smile': how Grok's nudification tool went viral

BBC - Malaysia and Indonesia block Musk's Grok over explicit deepfakes

Distractify - TikTok "Butter Dish Woman" Complains About Fiancé's Small Gift

TikTok - The Original Single List

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Happy Hump Day EICamels. This week we're delving into the world of male-led podcasts, specifically, Steven Bartlett's.

Last week, Instagram account @notyourpolitefeminist posted a carousel titled ‘The Diary Of A Misogynist’. Meredith writes, ‘The Diary of A CEO is often framed as thoughtful, emotionally intelligent, and progressive. it presents itself as a space for growth, vulnerability, and "having the hard conversations." And on the surface, that's exactly what it looks like: reflective language, slow pacing, men talking about feelings. but here's my problem with Bartlett, it stays focused on men's inner worlds - their fear, their insecurity, their unmet needs without really interrogating the systems that still benefit men even when they're struggling. The podcast leans heavily on therapy language: trauma, attachment, healing, vulnerability. but stripped of any feminist analysis, those words lose their power.’

Steven Bartlett released the first episode of DOAC in September 2017, but what started out as a hobby, and ‘way to learn from other business leaders’, has grown to become one of the biggest podcasts in the world, last year it reached one billion streams. However alongside its astronomical success, has it slowly descended into something very different, and perhaps even dangerous?

Thank you so much for all of your opinions and takes on this topic, we love being in conversation with you all.

O, R, B xx

@notyourpolitefeminist's post

BBC Investigation

New Statesman - Steven Bartlett's Empire of Bluff

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We're back EICuties!

We have so much to catch you up on re: Christmas TV binges. Also a meme has been travelling round TikTok about 365 buttons. Do you get it?

Next-up, we dive into the sci-fi, genre-bending Apple TV series that everyone is obsessed with, Pluribus. And finally 2026 already has an internet villain in the shape of a dad who claims to struggle spending more than 10 minutes with his child.

Thank you SO MUCH for your lovely messages and reviews. Please keep them coming as we love hearing from you <3 love O,R,B xxxx

In partnership with Cue Podcasts.

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The Traitors

Stranger Things

Emily in Paris

We Need To Talk About ‘The Traitors’ And Unconscious Bias

Why is it so perilous to be a person of colour on The Traitors? | Zoe Williams | The Guardian

365 buttons: could the biggest meme of 2026 change your life? | Social media | The Guardian

Pluribus Is About Everything and Unlike Anything Else

Pluribus review – the audacity of the Breaking Bad creator’s new TV show is incredible

Vince Gilligan Would Prefer You Explain Pluribus to Him

'Pluribus' Review: Season 1 Is A Frustrating, At Time Brilliant, Slog

Pluribus Finale, or The World’s Most Helpful Apocalypse

“Am I just a monster?”: Dad admits, unprompted, that his “blood starts to boil” if he has to spend over 10 minutes with his kids

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy Boxing Day EICarollers. We hope you had a delicious Christmas, and now, to get you through the gooch of the year, we present to you the things we've loved the most in 2025, and the things we can't wait for in 2026.

Every week this year we’ve told you guys what each of us have been loving- literally dozens and dozens of film, TV, podcast, article and book recommendations for you all to get stuck into. And so we’re ending the year with a “what we’ve been” loving round-up- some old, some new but all with the EIC stamp of approval. 

We’ll also be helping you mark your content calendars for 2026, with a reminder of what’s coming and what we literally cannot wait for. 

But just before we do that, we all want to say thank you so much to anyone who has listened to us, shared the podcast on social media or with a friend, left us a rating or a review, sent us a DM or commented, contributed to our Everything In Conversation eps or stopped us in the street to say you’re a fan. It really means the world, so thank you. 

Thank you to Cue Podcasts for this edit.

We love you all! O, R, B

Ruchira’s picks:

Blue Moon

Bugonia

The Rehearsal s2

Last One Laughing UK

Search Engine/search engine - dubai chocolate

Adolescence 

Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives

Hacks

Beth’s picks:

LA Women by Ella Berman

The Jack & Ash Show

Too Much

The Baby Died, Whose Fault lIs It?

Frankenstein

Weapons

Platonic

The Goon Squad

Oenone's picks:

The Year Men Broke by Tell The Bees

The Anti-Cosmetic Surgery Essay Every Woman Should Read

Four Seasons

What Did You Do Yesterday

The Vegetarian Han Kang

Ballad Of Wallis Island

In Memoriam

Slow Horses

The Night Manager

See you in 2026!

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