This isn’t your average book club Listeners! Yes we will anoint your ears through reading some life-enhancing passages from some of our favourite reads! BUT in this episode we also scan through fascinating research to bring you super interesting facts about:

💜 Translation

💜 Representation in Literature

💜 The Million Word Gap

💜 and have you ever considered where Reading all began? Let Fluff guide you through the history! 

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Books we mention in this episode and/or want to shout out about this month are:

📖 Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

📖 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardino Evaristo

📖 Tales From The Inner City by Shaun Tan

📖 Nothing Ever Happens Here by Sarah Hagger-Holt

📖 What A Time To Be Alone by Chidera Eggerue

📖 Macho Sluts by Pat Califia

📖 Snuggie Brain by Douglas Stuart

📖 The Trick Is To Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway

📖 King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes

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Our mouths are lunging towards the microphone this week Listeners to bring you our current reflections on Fitness (the named goal) and Exercise (the method). We both like to steer clear of toxic fitness culture, but it is EVERYWHERE! And many people might feel under pressure to edit their wonderful body as lockdown restrictions start to ease around the globe. 

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Emma and Jess share their own experiences of managing triggering comments on their bodies related to fitness; anorexia and exercise; and how they work to sustain a healthy relationship with exercise and fitness. We love our compassionate Top Tips for non-exercise exercise, and we would LOVE to hear more from you! 

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The fitness industry is ableist, racist, transphobic, fatphobic, queerphobic and basically can make anyone feel like their right to exercise and fitness doesn’t exist because it has been capitalised and uses white, cis, thin bodies as their poster. Nauh Listeners, Nauh. We highly recommended the educational resources on decolonizingfitness.com & on their Insta @decolonizing_fitness 

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Image Description: Emma and Jess are wearing stretchy movement clothing and are each doing a side stretch towards each other. Smiling and stretching to hold hands.

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#fitness #exercise #movement#stretching #decolonizefitness#fitnessculture #ed #edrecovery#toxicfitnessculture #inclusivefitness#anorexia #anorexianervosarecovery#eatingdisorderawareness#eatingdisorderrecovery

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Here’s what happened Listeners: Jess and Emma signed up for a Syrian Cooking Class with Yusuf through Migrateful. Yusuf came on the zoom screen with his joyful smile and entertained us with his humour and excellent facilitation; and also shared with us his experience of his journey from Syria to the U.K. and seeking asylum. We put down the eggplant we had started chopping to text each other that we’d love to interview Yusuf on Fluff.

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Lucky us, we further connected with Yusuf to hear more about his journey, the refugee crisis at present, and how we can effectively give our Time, Voice & Money to support refugees and people seeking asylum. Amidst the pandemic, our conversation & action might have lessened and we are glad to bring it to attention on Fluff today.

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Yusuf, we love a side-project, and we care about awareness and action to lower our carbon footprint. We were delighted to learn about your work as a software engineer and the project you are working on to connect communities and share resources (and positive connection). Listeners, get involved! 

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In this episode, Yusuf brings you wit, fun & important insights. Not to be missed. We were helpfully directed to charities to connect with who support refugees, including Team Bananas Supper Club & Migrateful U.K.

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We recommend visiting and exploring the Refugee Council’s website for learnings on ‘The Truth About Asylum’ and campaigns to support.

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Fluff enjoyed journeying to different parts of the human body in Season One: learning Funky Facts about Hair; and how to care for our biggest organ, Skin. Today we travel from our Tips to our Toes, to learn more about FEET!

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Maybe you can’t bear to look at them; or maybe you quite enjoy sucking a toe or two... love or hate them, there is a lot to learn and appreciate about feet in this episode!

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Emma and Jess have experienced painful complications with our feet but this podcast hour feels like a glorious deep massage into your arches and betwixt your toes. 

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Let your phalanges loose Listeners and give them a smile.

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Image Description: A photo of Emma and Jess’s feet! Emma’s toes adorn purple nail polish and her feet are painted with words such as “grounded”, “hair”, “tension”, “strong”. Jess’s toe nails are painted green and Jess has painted words including “dancer”, “sensual”, “massage here“, “suck me”.

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Dear Listeners,

For this episode we invite you to take a deep and slow breathe in and on your exhale imagine Jess and Emma’s open palms extending out towards you. Our open palms can rest there with you, as you listen to this episode on Triggers. And you are welcome to picture our hands extending out to you on any day that you would like to feel a comforting and peaceful energy. 

Emma and Jess have both engaged in Trauma Therapy. We uncovered our own trauma; we learnt about triggers; we got to know our own triggers; and we learnt how to lovingly care for ourself when in the cycle of a trigger. 

This learning has been life-changing for us. Incredibly healing for painful wounds. And we would like to bring to our Listeners in this episode compassion for traumatic experiences; the need for access to therapy; the importance of using the word ‘trigger’ accurately; and our developed practices for responding, not reacting, when triggers occur. 

A beautifully honest and loving episode Listeners. And should you need to Listeners, feel free to hold our open palms that are reaching out to you, and know that you are loved, worthy and in our hearts. 

Image Description: Emma and Jess pose individually, each engaging in a Compassionate Touch of their own choice. Emma holds her face supportively in the comfort of her own palms. Jess rests her warm hand against her heart. Both are breathing deeply into their compassionate touches.

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One of our most FUN episodes yet! We are taking you on an IMMERSIVE journey Listeners. A mystery journey where Emma and Jess each receive 6 surprise ingredients from each other, and then stir cooking magic in the kitchen with them! A brilliant game that we now recommend you play with all your friends!

We are rather entertaining ourselves but in this episode we welcome Food Critics Ingrid, Robert and Barnaby to join us on this tasty experience; and they serve extra charisma, fun and... sensuality (maybe it was the parsnip?)

This episode is for Listeners who are at ANY level of chopping, mixing and seasoning! And we have sieved in some of our favourite cooking Top Tips just incase any Listeners would like a little guidance :)

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Thank you to Fluff Listener James for suggesting this chuckle of an episode, EMBARRASSING MOMENTS! Emma and Jess were VERY open throughout Season One about moments that have made us BLUSH- but we dug deep and remembered further moments that made us cringe/ run the opposite direction away from the embarrassing moment!

It was so interesting to research for this episode about WHAT EXACTLY IS embarrassment and how can we overcome the blushing and shame of embarrassing moments? And we called upon the research of Dr Sarah Cefai for further learning on shame and humiliation.

We also learnt that embarrassment is actually a very positive social emotion! So we are loudly and proudly sharing some of our WHOOPS moments with you! Come for the laughs, come for the intrigue! And if you’d like to... please share your howlers with us! Embarrassing moments can make great stories to share after all! When treated with the endearment that they are!

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“Nibling is a gender-neutral term used to refer to a child of one's sibling as a replacement for "niece" or "nephew". The word is thought to have been coined in the early 1950s, but was relatively obscure for several decades before being revived in recent years.” (www.Merriam-Webster.com)

Fluff Listeners! It is with GLEE that Fluff are excited to share we now both have niblings! And in this episode we really enjoyed reflecting on the adult figures in our lives when we were young- our Aunties, Uncles and Friends! And what they taught us & instilled in us to this day.

Emma and Jess discuss what we would like to offer to the young people in our lives; whilst knowing that they are their own person, and we will for sure learn from them too!

It wouldn’t be a Fluff Episode without a consideration of gendered language and a good-ole bell hooks quote!

Please share with us your stories of Aunties/ Uncles; both having them and being one! And please let us know any gender-neutral terms you enjoy; maybe even just your name! Enjoy Listeners, it’s a pretty CUTE episode!

Image Description: Emma and Jess pose separately. Emma is a reading to her teddy bear who wears a Pride headband; and Jess reads to their mini-plants about miniscapes. We are showing our enjoyment of reading to the young people in our lives!

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ROLE up ROLE up Listeners! Season TWO of Fluff has landed and we are plunging straight into the world of PLAY! The foundation of Fluff! In this episode we explore a cheeky bit of role play within the realms of intimacy and sexy times; and try on our ideas for role play within friendships and solo exploration!

At the end of the role play day, we advocate for fun, excitement & the potential of learning more about who you are and what you are capable of when boundaries are pushed down. 

With a nod to the advice from psychotherapist @estherperelofficiallet Fluff guide you through the wonderful world of role play. Whilst we sip on our super delicious cocktails! We are so excited to be back with you listeners!

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It wasn't a difficult decision to bring back this episode! In fact, it makes perfect sense. We are coming up to a year of lockdown/socially distanced life and the pandemic has caused so many people to face many difficult and big life decisions! Though we may not be deciding which shoes to wear everyday, or where to pick up our lunches, or which bar to go to after work, we are contemplating career changes, new technologies and new obstacles.

In this episode we unpick gut instinct, we talk about mental health and its relationship with decision making and we share some tips on how to approach the biggies.

Here's what we said last July:

Growing up ain’t always easy! We are both adults AND lost children; navigating new experiences and thinking about which decision is right or best for us. Decision making also brings in respecting our own boundaries; which can be tough to do and takes practice.

We haven’t got it all figured out but we are on the journey to try and help ourselves when the weight of making a decision arises. Let your caring Fluff Hosts share some thoughts on decision making; instincts v. intuition; and but of course some personal stories of decisions we have had to make. 

You are a valuable human Fluff Listeners! Go easy on yourself. If you have your own guidance or learnings on Decision Making do get in touch to enlighten your Fluff Family. 

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