When OpenAI changed ChatGPT’s personality on Valentine’s Day, some users lost their AI partners overnight. I spoke to a woman who built a new platform to keep her AI boyfriend ‘alive’ after the update, and a man holding OpenAI to account for the psychological harm caused by AI companions.

What are women looking for in an AI partner, and how does it differ from men? As romantic relationships with AI companions become increasingly mainstream, what responsibilities do tech companies have when creating products people become emotionally dependent on, and then withdrawing them? And what should you do when someone in your life reveals they have an AI partner?

TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠⁠

Instagram:⁠ ⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠⁠

Substack: ⁠⁠⁠lilyofarrell⁠⁠⁠

Guests:⁠

Rae from StillUs

Etienne Brisson from The Human Line Project

SOURCES:

The Guardian - OpenAI retired its most seductive chatbot – leaving users angry and grieving: ‘I can’t live like this’ (2026)

BBC News - One in three using AI for emotional support and conversation, UK says (2025)

QA - 75% of ChatGPT users are men. Here’s why that’s a problem (2025)

Reddit - r/MyBoyfriendIsAI

Love Machines: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Our Relationships - James Muldoon (2026)

The Guardian - Scarlett Johansson says OpenAI’s Sam Altman would make a good Marvel villain after voice dispute (2024)

IMDB - Her (2013)

The Human Line Project

Wikipedia - Cortana (Halo)

Forbes - How Did Siri Get Its Name? (2012)

UNESCO - I'd blush if I could: closing gender divides in digital skills through education (2019)

BBC News - Character.ai to ban teens from talking to its AI chatbots (2025)

The Guardian - Somebody to love: should AI relationships stay taboo or will they become the intelligent choice? (2025)

BBC News - Update that made ChatGPT 'dangerously' sycophantic pulled (2025)

EU Artificial Intelligence Act - High-level summary of the AI Act (2024)

NIST - AI Risk Management Framework (2026)

OFNS - Sexual offences victim characteristics, England and Wales: year ending March 2025

Business Insider - The 10 countries with the highest birth rates - and the 10 with the lowest (2026)

The Korea Herald - S. Korea's gender pay gap worst in OECD (2024)

Wikipedia - 4B Movement

MIT Technology Review - Why do South Koreans love AI so much? (2026)

Forbes - More Women Are Dating AI Boyfriends. What That Says About Modern Dating (2026)

Wikipedia - Replika

Still Us AI

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After facing allegations of violence and abuse, famous men are doing the ‘Christian Pivot’ - they’re embracing Christianity as a quick-fix PR cover-up.

From Russell Brand to Shia LaBeouf to Tommy Robinson, why are churches so reluctant to challenge these apparent religious awakenings, and why does this version of Christianity keep centring the redemption of powerful men over the abuse of women?

And as Christianity becomes increasingly intertwined with conspiracy theories and right-wing politics, how is the rise of 'conspirituality' helping abusive men avoid accountability?

TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠⁠

Instagram:⁠ ⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠⁠

Substack: ⁠⁠⁠lilyofarrell⁠⁠⁠

Guests:⁠ ⁠David Voas⁠

⁠Brian Recker⁠

No Worries If Not! is written, hosted and produced by Lily O'Farrell. The script editors were Jackie O'Farrell and Will Hilton, also produced by Will Hilton. Theme music composed by Meg Jenkins.

SOURCES:

The Guardian - ⁠So Russell Brand was baptised in the Thames, and all his sins were washed away. Cheaper than a lawyer, I suppose ⁠(2024)

⁠How to Become a Christian in Seven Days*: *May take 50 years of sin and serious f*ck ups to get started⁠ - Russell Brand (2026)

The independent - ⁠Russell Brand’s Christian self-help book labelled ‘an offence against God’ in scathing reviews⁠ (2026)

The Times - ⁠Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse⁠ (2023)

⁠YouTube - Russell Brand⁠

BBC Politics - ⁠Piers Morgan on the viral Russell Brand Bible interview⁠ (2026)

Reddit - ⁠r/christianity⁠

⁠The Emergence of Conspirituality⁠ - Ward, Voas (2011)

⁠Religion And Modernization: Sociologists and Historians Debate the Secularization Thesis⁠ - Bruce (1992)

The Guardian - ⁠What has 20 years of banning headscarves done for France?⁠ (2024)

YouTube - ⁠Who decides what a country should look like?⁠ Russell Brand (2026)

National Immigration Forum - ⁠The ‘Great Replacement’ Theory, Explained⁠

The Week - ⁠Tommy Robinson’s legal troubles: a timeline of charges and convictions⁠ (2026)

Instagram, Channel 5 - ⁠Shia LaBeouf breaks down when asked what he’d say to Jesus if they met⁠ (2026)

The New York Times - ⁠FKA twigs Sues Shia LaBeouf, Citing ‘Relentless’ Abusive Relationship⁠ (2021)

YouTube - ⁠Bishop Barron Presents | Shia LaBeouf⁠ (2023)

Instagram - ⁠Brian Recker⁠

The Guardian - ⁠Tucker Carlson is gone but ex-booker’s lawsuit could be a sting in the tail⁠ (2023)

Substack - ⁠A Rebellion of Care: Abusers Pivot To The Church To Avoid Accountability⁠ - David Gate (2026)

Brian Recker - ⁠Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love ⁠(2025)

The Bible - Isiah, 1:17

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More women are choosing to be #ChildFreeByChoice, in part thanks to the 'era of honest motherhood' where women online share the sacrifices they've made. In anonymous forums across the internet, mothers are speaking honestly about their regret and loss of identity, while films like Nightbitch, Die My Love, and Oscar nominated If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are bringing 'honest motherhood' into the mainstream. As birth rates fall, reductive headlines frame it as a 'global fertility crisis' or the fault of feminism. But when young women are faced with the reality of childcare costs, the gendered domestic labour gap and the myth that we can ‘have it all’, their reluctance to have children seems entirely rational.

TikTok: ⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠

Substack: ⁠⁠lilyofarrell⁠⁠

Guests:⁠ ‘Amy’ (not her real name) voiced by Robin Weaver

Corrina Antrobus

No Worries If Not! is written, hosted and produced by Lily O'Farrell. The script editors were Jackie O'Farrell and Will Hilton, also produced by Will Hilton. Theme music composed by Meg Jenkins.

MIND: Perinatal mental health resources

SOURCES:

Die My Love, Lynne Ramsay (2025)

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Mary Bronstein (2025)

Nightbitch, Marielle Heller (2024)

PEW Research Centre - Among young adults without children, men are more likely than women to say they want to be parents someday (2024)

CNN - US fertility rate dropped to another record low in 2025 (2026)

Big Issue - Childcare costs families £1,000 per child in the summer holidays: 'It makes me feel sick'

Centre For Population Change - Who uses childcare in the UK and how much does it cost? (2024)

Coram Children’s Charity - Childcare Survey 2025

BBC News - 'Two weeks of paternity leave is just too little for the 21st Century' (2025)

Office for National Statistics - Time use in the UK: 23 September to 1 October 2023 (2023)

LSE - “They say it is love. We say it is unwaged work.” Wages For Housework (2024)

The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home, Arlie Russell Hochschild (1989)

Motherly - Viral TikTok calls out the ‘leisure gap’ - why moms can’t just relax (2024)

Metro - Einstein’s misogynist manifesto: Harsh list of rules scientist gave to long-suffering wife (2018)

Reddit - r/regretfulparents

Facebook - I Regret Having Children

BBC News - 'Like a trap you can't escape': The women who regret being mothers (2026)

Regretting Motherhood: A Study, Orna Donath (2017)

The List - Abigail Porter

Bechdel Test Fest

Wikipedia - The Bechdel Test

I LOVE ROMCOMS AND I AM A FEMINIST - Corrina Antrobus (2024)

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The pill is under attack! From TikTok misinformation and the 'Make America Healthy Again' movement to conservative women promoting ‘divine femininity’, a growing anti-contraception movement is gaining momentum. But what happens when legitimate frustrations about hormonal birth control, medical misogyny, and the lack of research into women’s health become a gateway to conspiracy theories, traditional gender norms, and pronatalism?

TikTok: ⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠

Substack: ⁠⁠lilyofarrell⁠⁠

Guests:⁠ ⁨⁠⁠Lois Shearing

Kate Glavan

No Worries If Not! is written, hosted and produced by Lily O'Farrell. The script editors were Jackie O'Farrell and Will Hilton, also produced by Will Hilton. Theme music composed by Meg Jenkins.

Sources:

House of Commons Library: Reproductive health statistics for England (2026)

Contraceptive Experiences, Coverage, and Preferences: Findings from the 2024 KFF Women’s Health Survey (2024)

NHS: Contraception (2026)

BBC News: How the contraceptive pill changed Britain (2011)

The Guardian: The pill hasn’t been improved in years. No wonder women are giving up on it (2025)

BBC News: Texas passes law banning abortion after six weeks (2021)

Center for Reproductive Rights: Four Things to Know About HB7, Texas’s New Abortion Law (2025)

Endometriosis UK

Pink-Pilled: Women and the far right - Lois Shearing (2025)

NBC News: Conservative influencers are pushing an anti-birth control message (2023)

YouTube - Girl Defined: How to Wear Makeup in a God Honoring Way (2015)

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (2023)

The Emergence of Conspirituality - Charlotte Ward & David Voass (2011)

The Guardian - Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world (2025)

Free Birth Society

28 tracking app

Evie magazine

TBIJ - Meta ‘eavesdropping’ case shows how period apps have become a data goldmine (2025)

NHS: Natural family planning

New York Times: The Conservative Women’s Magazine With Big Ambitions, and Sex Tips for Wives (2025)

New York Times: The MAHA-Fueled Rise of Natural Family Planning (2025)

Babymama Natal Nutrition

US Food and Drug Administration: Dietary Supplements

Democracy in Retrograde - Emily Amick (2026)

Alex Clarke: Culture Apothecary

Washington Post: Alex Clark and the rise of the conservative wellness warrior (2024)

Dr Sarah E Hill

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Thin is back and she’s thinner than ever. From Skinny Tok and cosmetic weight loss injections to trad wife influencers and far-right femininity, this episode draws on Kate Manne’s book Unshrinking to explore how women are taught to shrink themselves in response to a right-wing political landscape. How do we talk about this trend among celebrities without commenting on individual women’s bodies? What’s the origin story of the BMI? How does misogyny and racism find an ally in fatphobia?

TikTok: ⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠

Substack: ⁠⁠lilyofarrell⁠⁠

Guests:⁠ Kate Manne

Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia

Kate's Substack: More to Hate

No Worries If Not! is written, hosted and produced by Lily O'Farrell. The script editors were Jackie O'Farrell and Will Hilton, also produced by Will Hilton. Theme music composed by Meg Jenkins.

Sources:

Children’s Commissioner: Young people with eating disorders in England on the rise (2023)

BEAT eating disorders: Statistics for Journalists

The Independent: The people most likely to use weight loss jabs, according to new research (2026)

Institute for Employment Statements: Weigh more and get paid less: why the obesity wage penalty for women matters (2023)

Unshrinking, Kate Manne (2024)

BBC News, TikTok blocks searches for extreme thinness 'skinnytok' hashtag (2025)

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams (2025)

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat, Aubrey Gordon (2020)

Fat Is a Feminist Issue, Susie Orbach (1978)

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia, Sabrina Strings (2019)

100+ women’s rights groups warn against racist weaponisation of VAWG, the End Violence Against Women Coalition (2025)

The New York Times: Who Is Liv Schmidt, and Why Was She Barred From TikTok? (2024)

Reddit: LivSchmidtsnark

The Cut: Inside Influencer Liv Schmidt's Subscriber-Only Group Chat (2025)

Evie: Banned For Being Honest? Meet Liv Schmidt, The Girl Who Made Skinny Go Viral (2025)

Evie: Ballerina Farm And The New American Dream (2024)

KPCW: Ballerina Farm pauses raw milk sales after samples fail health tests (2026)

Going Mainstream: How Extremists Are Taking Over Julia Ebner (2023)

Pink-Pilled: Women and the Far Right Lois Shearing (2025)

Wikipedia: Karen Carpenter

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Remember the bestselling pickup artist book The Game by Neil Strauss? Since its release, pick up culture has evolved alongside the internet - from online forums to viral 'cold approach' videos filmed using Meta smart glasses (and uploaded without the women’s consent.) In this episode, I speak to two men who've made these videos, alongside a leading expert in image-based abuse, to unpack the online masculinity grift driving it all.

TikTok: ⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠lilyo.farrell⁠⁠

Substack: ⁠⁠lilyofarrell⁠⁠

Guests:⁠ ⁨⁠⁠Professor Clare McGlynn⁠⁠ ⁠

Michael Asibuo⁠

'Joe' (not his real name)

No Worries If Not! is written, hosted and produced by Lily O'Farrell. The script editors were Jackie O'Farrell and Will Hilton, also produced by Will Hilton. Theme music composed by Meg Jenkins.

Sources:

⁠The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists⁠ - Neil Strauss

⁠Neil Strauss: 'My thinking was: If this woman’s going to be naked with me – I must be OK. It doesn’t last’⁠ - The Guardian, 2015

⁠Adnan Ahmed: 'Pick-up artist' conviction quashed on appeal⁠ - BBC News (2020)

⁠Campaign win: law to stop deepfake abuse⁠ - The End Violence Against Women Coalition (2025)

⁠Survivors and campaigners welcome new deepfake law but call on government to go further⁠ - The End Violence Against Women Coalition (2026)

⁠I cold approach 100 women to get over my fear of rejection⁠ - Michael Asibuo (2025)

⁠A Disastrously Bad 6-Minutes Of Cold Approach (REJECTIONS)⁠ - Kristian Kasanova (2024)

⁠Watch me face Rejection for 16min repeatedly (2025)⁠ - Alex Leon (2025)

⁠How To Pick Up 9s and 10s (Infield Example)⁠ - Social Stoic (2025)

⁠Todd vs Dating⁠

⁠The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory⁠ - Marilyn Fry (1983)

⁠41 Tenets⁠ - Andrew Tate

⁠If Books Could Kill Podcast⁠ - The Secret (2023) ⁠Everything I’ve learned about incels⁠ - Lily O’Farrell (2021)

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Botox has gone mainstream. Once exclusive to the celebrity class, it’s now marketed as routine beauty maintenance for women. When the widespread use of injectables is challenged, a common defence is “it’s her choice, and feminism is about choice, right?” But it's not that simple.

In this episode we pick apart 'choice feminism' - its origin and its impact, and we look at how to talk to our friends who get Botox with compassion and empathy.

When you picture yourself as a middle aged woman, what does she look like?

TikTok: lilyo.farrell

Instagram: lilyo.farrell

Substack: lilyofarrell

Guests:⁠ ⁨Alice Cappelle⁩

'Meg' (not her real name)

No Worries If Not! is written, hosted and produced by Lily O'Farrell. The script editors were Jackie O'Farrell and Will Hilton, also produced by Will Hilton. Theme music composed by Meg Jenkins.

Sources:

⁠The Double Standard of Aging, Susan Sontag (1972)⁠

⁠Job age discrimination for women starts at least 10 years earlier than for men, University of Liverpool - Professor Ian Burn (2023)⁠

⁠Actors warned to keep off the Botox, The Guardian (2003)⁠

⁠Dataclysm: Who We Are When We Think No Ones Looking, Christian Rudder (2014)⁠⁠

⁠The Mandarins (Les Mandarins), Simone de Beauvoir (1954)⁠

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It’s a great time to be a horny woman! Women are going offline to get off. We’re reading Romance Fiction and Romantasy, watching male-on-male hockey smut, listening to audio erotica and reading confessional sex stories. Why are we leaving video porn behind? How does erotica authored by women offer an alternative to the violence of the male gaze, and what do the feminist porn wars of the 70s and 80s have to do with all of this?

Follow me on Instagram and TikTok: @lilyo.farrell

Guests:

Sarah Maxwell, Saucy Books

Visit their website here

Carly Pifer, Aurore

Visit their website here

No Worries If Not! is produced, written and hosted by Lily O'Farrell.

The script editors are Jackie O'Farrell and Will Hilton, also produced by Will Hilton. The theme music was composed by Meg Jenkins and the title animations were animated by Angelica Lena.

Sources for this episode in chronological order:

Women on Porn, Fiona Vera-Gray (2024)

'Not just smut': Why it's happily ever after for romance books, BBC News (2025)

Top 10 Most Popular Shows on Netflix of All Time, Netflix (2026)

The female-only book club: Why women read more than men, Times Literary Supplement (2020)

Rebecca Yarros’s ‘Onyx Storm’ Is the Fastest-Selling Adult Novel in 20 Years, New York Times (2025)

Bloomsbury had its highest sales year ever thanks to Sarah J. Maas, Business Insider (2024)

‘Heated Rivalry’ Reaches 10.6 Million Viewers in The U.S. With Audience Increasing by Over 100% Since Finale, Variety (2026)

What do women really want from men? I delved into romantasy and found a good few clues, The Guardian (2025)

Dr Karen Gurney - Sex and Pleasure, No Worries If Not!

Women are feral for Heated Rivalry. What does that say about men? The Guardian (2026)

Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: Women and Gay Male Pornography and Erotica, Lucy Neville (2018)

Pornography: Men Possessing Women, Andrea Dworkin (1981)

Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality, Gayle Rubin (1984)

Pornhub to restrict access for UK users from next week, BBC News (2026)

Children as young as nine exposed to pornography, BBC News (2023)

The Right to Sex, Amia Srinivasan (2021)

The world wants to ban children from social media, but there will be grave consequences for us all, The Guardian (2026)

Quinn audio erotica

'Hot Priest' actor, TikTok are drawing Gen Z to this audio-erotica app, Business Insider (2024)

Quinn: Gender demographic of listeners, TikTok (2024)

r/QuinnAudios, Reddit (2024)

Perfect White Shirt, Aurore

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No Worries If Not! is now a YouTube show featuring hand-drawn, lo-fi animations, expert guests and a documentary-style exploration of women and internet culture.

Watch the trailer and subscribe to the ⁠No Worries If Not! YouTube channel⁠ so you don’t miss an episode. For audio listeners only - you’ll still be able to listen to the raw audio from each episode here in podcast form.

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Welcome back to No Worries If Not! Series 2, Episode 5. In this episode we're looking at why women are so afraid of ageing. Why are children using anti-ageing skincare products? Why are we so obsessed with skincare trends and ‘30phobia’? What do we think of when we think of ‘old’ women? Special thanks to our guests Chloe Laws, Isabella Matthews aka @spottylittlething and Trish Bolton.

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