Losing My Cool with Paige Leacey

In this episode, I get schhhvitzy with Mel, my spirit guide and fellow witch sista. We (well, mostly me) crank the sauna a little too high, but still manage a fairly robust discussion about being in the sorts of connections where your worlds revolve around completely different things ie. your world around theirs, and theirs around… the surf? We ruminate on the concept of rejection as a symbol, procrastination when it comes to sitting down to work on your own personal projects, feeling drained versus feeling invigorated by someone else’s company and our experiences with open relationships.

We also round out the convo with a healthy bit back and forth on blow jobs. (Sue me.)

Off the record, Melanie has been an ear to me as I have contemplated the many cosmic sex and relationship jokes I’ve found myself the butt of. She is a lover of all things connection, has background in art therapy, is (in her own words) in a deep romance with plants and poetry and is currently studying herbal medicine.

Song: Monarch

In this episode, I sweat with Mariama Rose Mansfield-Njie aka Maz, who hails from Brighton England, and is a creator of social justice content as well as the host for a radio show called ‘Babycakes’ which focuses on sex positivity. Maz and I chat shit (as she’d say in her pommy cadence) about the timeless moral dilemma of following your heart versus adopting society’s programming, especially when it comes to sleeping around and being in connection with multiple people at once. We discuss the blurred lines of consent when you’re not being totally honest about who (and how many people) you’re banging and, truly, we come up with no answers because there are none that apply to all situationships. Especially in the small town we live in.

Maz holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Psychology and History of Science and teaches young content creators how to decolonise their writing, especially in freelance travel narrative.

Song: Monarch

In this episode, I get sweaty with Ruby Shine – the co-owner of Trybe Wellness and my best friend of 18 years.

Rubes and I talk through my hysteria and extreme panic following a recent date, we contemplate our voyages moving back to our hometown of Byron Bay after COVID hit and the changes that had occurred in us after spending a decade living away. We examine our relationships with our dads and how they’ve influenced patterns in our romantic partnerships, and we get honest about being inadvertently judgemental in the face of rejection.

This is a special episode, and one very close to my heart. 

Song: Monarch

In this episode I chat to Gemma Clarke – my Bay FM radio co-host slash sometimes-boss slash long-time close friend. We melt in the sauna over a discussion about how we manage (and often mismanage) co-dependency in friendships, striving and struggling to meet the diverse needs of the people we love, and dart between talking about falling in love, sharing financial responsibly in partnership, and Gem’s newly discovered marijuana-induced eyelid eczema. We also ponder whether or not we both have adult ADHD.

Gemma is the founder and editor of Global Hobo, a travel publication whose intention is to eradicate racism and call to question platforms with only white privilege perspectives in the travel media industry. She is also the mum of poetry and feminist publication Anaerkillik, the co-founder of a copywriting agency called Stray, an organiser of international writing workshops (which I teach on) and has the sickest van out of anyone I know.

Song: Monarch

My guest this sweat sesh is Alice. She is without a doubt one of the most compassionate and emotionally intelligent people I know (and she also happens to be a sex worker). We turn up the heat over a conversation about privacy, power and putting a price on sex. I tell her a story about an ex-boyfriend reaching out to me after reading an essay I penned on having a secret, and we swap notes on what it’s like to hide big things from the people we love. We also chat about her industry, the empowerment and solidarity in sex work, the difference between seeing male and female clients AND we deliberate over whether or not love and capitalism can coexist. I love this episode.

Alice has been a sex worker for over 10 years, having worked both freelance as well as in brothels and parlours. She is an advocate for change in the representation of and security for sex workers and uses the money she makes from her job to buy abundant hampers for her pregnant girlfriends and cute gifts for the people she adores.

*Trigger warning: in this episode, we discuss anxiety and eating disorders.*

Song: Monarch

My second ever guest is my wonderful friend Bryn Newmann. Bryn is a multi-skilled creative who earns her keep as a marketing consultant and website designer. She also runs freelance art workshops in the Northern Rivers and it’s probably important to note that she is 100% responsible for the sick aesthetic of the @losing.my.cool Instagram. But what makes Bryn an incredible woman outside of her art is her open mind, philosophical lens on life and her ability to see all of her relationships as spiritual practices without bypassing the (sometimes messy) human experience.

In this episode, Byrn and I go deep on first loves, dealing with cheaters, facing your own sexpectations, not letting society decide what you like for you, and carrying the lessons from one relationship into the next. Byrn also completely obliterates the shame and stigma around young couples who seek counseling or coaching to propel their relationship forward.

Song: Monarch

Mardi and I get hot and sweaty as I explain an incident I got myself into defending a girl at a party after she was casually called “dumb” by a guy she’d slept with at that same party. We go deep on toxic patriarchal behaviours, constructive ways to handle gendered insults, that all sexes need to come to the table with more commitment to having peaceful relationships, and we examine how some “banter” should be questioned – not normalised. Mards recently completed a PhD in Cultural Sociology, specialising in gender and sex, with her thesis titled: ‘Everyday Coercion: An exploration of young adults negotiations of heterosexual sex, consent and intimacy.

Song: Monarch

Losing My Cool is a podcast by Paige Leacey about trying to stay warm in a world full of "cool" people. 

@losing.my.cool

SEASON ONE COMING JULY 1ST.

Song: Monarch