This week on the piffle pod, we’re finally giving a name to a type of episode we’ve been doing for a while now: piffle pieces! During these episodes, we each bring an article to the table and see where the conversation takes us.

First up, we’re talking about making extra money, inspired by The Cut’s The Ways I Make Extra Money That I Never Talk About. From bizarre side hustles to creative ways of bringing in a bit of cash, we discuss what people are willing to do to make a few extra dollars (including selling urine...) and whether or not these side hustles are ethical.

Then we turn our attention to parenting, children’s safety and independence, inspired by a New York Times article about whether parents should be charged with a crime for letting their kids roam free on their own. We discuss how much independence children really need, whether we’ve become too fearful of letting them out of our sight, and where the line between keeping kids safe and keeping them sheltered lies.

Two articles, two very different rabbit holes and plenty to piffle about!

Not experts. Just enthused.

Leave a comment, like and subscribe, or share this episode with a friend! To stay up to date with all things Piffle, follow us on Instagram or TikTok @piffleproductions, or email us at ⁠[email protected]⁠

Music by Michael and Tilly.

⚠️ Content note: this episode discusses self-harm, body image, eating disorders and the impact of body commentary in media. If any of these themes are difficult for you, please skip this episode or take care while listening. Resources are linked below.

This week we start with Perez Hilton — specifically his recent TikTok live self-harm incident, and while we're glad he's getting help, seeing his name back in the headlines sent us straight back to the early 2000s. His blog was one of the most influential and cruel sources of commentary on women's bodies of that era, and we found ourselves unpacking how much of that seeped into us as teenagers.

Combined with the shrinking bodies of celebrities in 2026 — the Ozempic era — and the relentless commentary around Ariana Grande's body specifically, we've been feeling sent back in time against our will. We reflect on what it was like growing up exposed to tabloids and blogs that were so openly cruel about women's bodies, and how that content shaped the way we felt about ourselves — and how some of those feelings have been unexpectedly resurfaced.

But we don't leave it there. We also talk about antidotes — the things that pull us out of that headspace and back into our bodies in a good way. We share a reel from content creator Gemma Dimond (@gemdimond) that really resonated with us, and we talk about finding hobbies and passions that have nothing to do with how you look.

Elo also reviews two films she saw at the Melbourne International Film Festival — Whistle, a documentary about the surprisingly passionate world of competitive whistling, and Maddie's Secret, a brilliantly overacted satirical comedy starring John Early that sends up the clichéd made-for-TV melodramas about women (with eating disorders) from the 2000s — and lands somewhere surprisingly moving while handling the subject matter with sensitivity. Urs also reviews Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey — loved it, but bring napkins for your ears.

💛 If this episode brought up anything difficult, please reach out to the Butterfly Foundation: butterfly.org.au or call 1800 33 4673.

Not experts. Just enthused.

Leave a comment, like and subscribe, or share this episode with a friend! To stay up to date with all things Piffle, follow us on Instagram or TikTok @piffleproductions, or email us at [email protected]

Music by Michael and Tilly.

This week, we're unpacking Rebel Wilson's win in a defamation case that raised big questions about reputation, celebrity and what people owe each other in public.

Then we dive into two fascinating health stories. First, we explore why an FDA advisory committee has recommended approving six therapeutic peptides and whether they're the future of medicine or simply the latest wellness obsession. We also discuss the growing number of medications being administered at American summer camps and what that says about modern childhood and mental health.

Read the articles here:

• The Coming Peptide Free-for-All – The New York Times
• Scary Stories From the Summer-Camp Infirmary – The Cut

Not experts. Just enthused.

Leave a comment, like and subscribe, or share this episode with a friend! To stay up to date with all things Piffle, follow us on Instagram or TikTok @piffleproductions, or email us at [email protected].

Music by Michael and Tilly.

Do you think you have good etiquette? This week we're sharing our take on a recent Guardian article listing what's considered rude in 2026 — and honestly, we're all guilty of at least a few of these.

We get into workplace etiquette — single word responses on Slack, Teams calls from cafes, and whether emailing colleagues out of hours is ever acceptable. Then we move into dating — sending a rejection message after just one date, trying to kiss someone at a bus stop, and the great ghosting debate. And we round it out with social situations — the rise of 'RSVP amnesia', leaving WhatsApp groups without warning, and whether your dog is actually invited.

Read the full article here: ⁠How Not to Be Rude in 2026 - The Guardian⁠

Not experts. Just enthused.

Leave a comment, like and subscribe, or share this episode with a friend! To stay up to date with all things Piffle, follow us on Instagram or TikTok @piffleproductions, or email us at ⁠[email protected]⁠

Music by Michael and Tilly.

This week we're reviewing Olivia Wilde's new psychological thriller, The Invite. We discuss the premise, performances, themes, and whether the film lives up to the hype.

We also debate whether Joe and Angela (Seth Rogan and Olivia Wilde) should have accepted Hawke and Pina's (Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz) proposition, unpack the film's unconventional therapy session, and explore whether Pina was right to conclude that their relationship was already over.

Finally, we share our interpretations of the ending. Did Joe and Angela separate, or was there hope for their marriage? Expect spoilers, differing opinions, and a deep dive into one of the year's most talked-about thrillers.

Leave a comment, like and subscribe, or share this episode with a friend! To stay up to date with all things Piffle, follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠ or ⁠TikTok⁠ @piffleproductions, or email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Music by Michael and Tilly.

This week Elo recommends Olivia Wilde's new A24 film The Invite – an off-beat comedy starring Wilde alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, about a married couple who invite their upstairs neighbours around and things get weird pretty quickly. No spoilers, but we do discuss how the film was partly inspired by the breakdown of Wilde's relationship with Jason Sudeikis, and why after the chaos of Don't Worry Darling, The Invite feels like a genuine redemption arc – and whether that's even a fair framing.

Then Urs brings us a recent New York Times essay making the case that we should all be dating our coworkers. We discuss the concept of the "Office 10", why workplace romance has declined so sharply in recent years, and whether the apps have made us forget how to fall for someone we actually know.

Plus, we discuss the definition of the word 'ambivalent'. Spoiler: it probably doesn't mean what you think it means.

A fun one. Not experts. Just enthused.

Leave a comment, like and subscribe, or share this episode with a friend! To stay up to date with all things Piffle, follow us on Instagram or TikTok @piffleproductions, or email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Music by Michael and Tilly.

This week we tried something a little different: we each brought a topic the other knew nothing about until we hit record.

First up, Urs brings us a recent article from The Cut about ⁠millennials feeling entitled to their parents' money⁠. We read through some of the scenarios — adult children watching their parents cruise the Mediterranean and buy yachts while they drown in student debt — and give our two cents. We both landed in the same place: nobody is entitled to anyone else's money, even their parents'. But the student loan piece complicated things. The American college debt system is different to Australian HECS/HELP debt, and we'll be the first to admit we don't fully understand the pressure of those loans.

Then it's Elo's turn. She brought the Kylie Jenner x Meta Starfire glasses — and yes, they are undeniably quite chic. But are they a tipping point for AI wearable technology going fully mainstream? Should we be scared? We talk about the launch event (Kylie, Mark Zuckerberg, and a very incognito Timothée Chalamet in a cap and hoodie), the safety and surveillance concerns, the privacy implications of a 12MP camera disguised as a fashion accessory, and what it means that it's Kylie Jenner's actual AI voice inside the frames.

Not experts. Just enthused.

Leave a comment, like and subscribe, or share this episode with a friend! To stay up to date with all things Piffle, follow us on Instagram or TikTok @piffleproductions, or email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Music by Michael and Tilly.

A new book argues that we've become too afraid of sunlight. But is the sun really misunderstood or are public health experts right to keep the message simple?

In this episode, we discuss In Defense of Sunlight by science journalist Rowan Jacobsen and the growing conversation around sunlight, sunscreen, vitamin D and skin cancer. After seeing Jacobsen's arguments featured in Allure and across the podcast circuit, we wanted to dig into the claims for ourselves.

As two Australians who grew up with Slip, Slop, Slap campaigns and some of the highest melanoma rates in the world, we explore why sun safety messaging exists, whether public health advice has been fairly represented in the debate around sunlight, and why some of Jacobsen's most controversial arguments may be less controversial than they first appear.

We discuss:

• The key themes in Jacobson's book
• Our experience with sun safety growing up in Australia
• What the sun safety guidelines in Australia and the US actually recommend (hint: it's not reapplying sunscreen every two hours while sitting indoors in winter)
• Jacobsen's claim that people with darker skin tones may experience negative health effects from following sun safety guidelines designed primarily for lighter-skinned populations.

Leave a comment, like and subscribe, or share this episode with a friend! To stay up to date with all things Piffle, follow us on Instagram or TikTok @piffleproductions, or email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Music by Michael and Tilly.

Today, we're completing the unofficial trio of books taking the world by storm this year: Famesick by Lena Dunham, Strangers by Belle Burden, and now Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.

We discuss our thoughts on Yesteryear's zeitgeisty themes of tradwife culture, mommy bloggers, and the curated world of social media influencing - and what happens when the curtain gets pulled back to reveal what really goes on outside the camera frame.

We also dive into the IRL tradwife world of Hannah Neeleman from Ballerina Farm and even the family-vlogger-turned-convicted-criminal world of Ruby Franke, and ask what happens when motherhood, content creation and performance start to blur together, and in some cases sadly lead to child abuse and neglect.

So, what ties all three of these books together? On first glance, they don't have all that much in common. Two completely different memoirs and a fictional novel about a time-travelling tradwife. But, each one, at its core, is about a woman (a white woman) unravelling. Which seems to be a popular theme right now but raises the question: who gets to be a bestseller?

Leave a comment, like and subscribe, or share this episode with a friend! To stay up to date with all things Piffle, follow us on Instagram or TikTok @piffleproductions, or email us at ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠.

Music by Michael and Tilly.

Inspired by a recent article in The Cut, we discuss why so many people in their 30s and 40s are feeling lost, stuck or uncertain about the future. Despite having 15-20 years of experience, many are finding themselves unemployed, searching for work for months at a time, or questioning careers and identities they spent decades building.

From there, we dive into artificial intelligence (AI) and the growing sense that we're being told to embrace a future that nobody actually signed up to. We talk about leaked comments from Mark Zuckerberg, the increasing pressure from tech leaders and celebrities to "get on board" and a recent New York Times article exploring why college commencement speakers touting AI are being met with boos from graduates. Rather than excitement, many students seem to be responding with skepticism, anxiety and a sense that they're inheriting a job market already being reshaped beneath their feet.

But is any of this as inevitable as we're being told? We discuss previous technological revolutions (from crypto to blockchain) that were once presented as world-changing certainties, and whether AI could follow a more complicated path than its biggest advocates predict.

Leave a comment, like and subscribe, or share this episode with a friend! To stay up to date with all things Piffle, follow us on Instagram or TikTok @piffleproductions, or email us at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠.

Music by Michael and Tilly.

Articles discussed:

• Midlife Crisis-ing in the End-times
• It's No Wonder Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers
• Digital arson spree by ‘AI Bonnie and Clyde’ raises fears over autonomous tech

Also mentioned:

• Our previous episode on Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams