Schmeitgeist

The 'body positivity' decade is over, and the ultra-skinny look has made a return.

The message that all bodies are beautiful has given way to a resurgence in diet culture and obsessive body checking on TikTok and Instagram.

So what happened to all that supposed progress, and why are we suddenly backsliding into the toxic size standards of the 90s and 2000s?

Or maybe the notion of thinness as a virtue never really went away?

In this episode of Schmeitgeist, we investigate the reasons why ten years of body positivity messaging has seemingly evaporated.

We're also exploding some of the biggest lies propping up the pro-thin culture that's replacing it.

Hating capitalism isn't just a left-wing project anymore.

Even in 2018, 59 per cent of Australian Millennials believed that capitalism had failed.

Since then the mood has only darkened, with vitriol for landlords, Nepo Babies and Depop resellers who flip secondhand clothes for a profit, rife on social media.

Under-40s are abandoning the centre in record numbers, but not everyone is lurching left.

The multiverse of Gen Z political identities on the Internet has rendered the left-right spectrum obsolete.

Meanwhile, Millennials are in the process of becoming the first generation in modern history not to drift to the centre-right as they age.

So how did we get here, and if the better part of two generations has lost faith in capitalism, then what happens next?

You can deny you're a horror fan all you like, but the numbers say otherwise.

Films like Scream VI and M3gan have been tearing up the box office, and horror has roughly doubled its market share in recent years.

At the same time, the content formerly known as 'the mainstream' keeps getting darker.

Juggernaut series such as The Last Of Us and Stranger Things aren't usually classed as horror, but their genre credentials are undeniable.

They're part of a new wave of popular film and TV that's thematically confronting, more violent, and spookier.

In this episode of Schmeitgeist, we find out what's behind our growing appetite for horror.

What does this new dark streak in our preferences say about us?

There's a certain desperation to the search for an ADHD psychiatrist in 2023.

Existing patients run out of meds waiting for an appointment, while would-be patients are hung up on and quoted as much as $3000 for an assessment.

Interest in ADHD has exploded in recent years, driving the demand for specialists to new highs and triggering an access crisis.

The only people who seem to be benefiting from the shortage are the psychiatrists who've started earning as much as $900,000 a year.

This episode of Schmeitgeist is the unexpected conclusion to what began as a deep dive into ADHD internet subcultures.

In part 2 of our investigation into the ADHD wave, we look at the new breed of clinic that's emerged to meet it.

Are the patients paying the most getting the right care? And what happens if you can't afford the new fees?

We're in the middle of a massive ADHD diagnosis wave, but not everyone believes it's the real thing.

One side of this debate sees it as an out of hand TikTok trend, fuelled by Gen Zs and Millennials in search of identity, attention, meds, or all three.

The other side sees it as the natural consequence of an overdue education — that we're emerging from the ADHD dark ages, and we've still got catching up to do.

The only bit they agree on is that most new cases are getting the idea on social media.

In 2022, prescriptions for ADHD medications in Australia exceeded 3.15 million. That's two and a half times the number of prescriptions issued in 2018.

There's also an unprecedented number of people queuing for a diagnosis, and nowhere near enough psychiatrists to see them all.

So the question is, are we overdoing it?

In this episode of Schmetgeist, we test the theory that the ADHD content tsunami is convincing more people than it should, and in turn fueling a mental health access crisis.

Polyamory used to be reserved for the kinky, the queer, and the communist witches of this world. (Go with us, we have proof).

But in the last few years, the map has been radically redrawn.

Ethical non-monogamy in all its forms, including polyamory, is now more visible and widely practiced in the mainstream than ever before.  So how did it graduate from the fringes?

On this episode of Schmeitgeist, we find out what it's like to make the switch, whether it's here to stay, and if Centrelink will ever recognise your throuple.

A chainmail bra made of gold crucifixes. A t-shirt that says "God's favourite". A genuinely funny meme account called I Need God In Every Moment Of My Life. Alt-left media personalities declaring their love for Latin Mass.

Welcome to the world of edgy internet Catholicism, where irony-pigs, faith-curious e-girls and racist Zealots all post side-by-side.

The Catholic religion and its aesthetics are having a controversial moment as a deep internet trend. But why?

Is it Zoomer nihilism? A reaction to 'woke-mania'? And does anyone really believe?

On this episode of Schmeitgeist, we sort the sh*t-posting from the sincerity to find out.

Bimbo, a word that's always been used to attack women, isn't the most obvious starting point for a Gen Z feminist subculture.

But if you scroll through #BimboTok and you'll find girlies, gays, theys, and more, proudly declaring their bimbo status and looking the part while they do it.

Expect to find hyper-girly pink outfits, high heels, lowrise jeans, short skirts, pigtails, tiny handbags, slogan tees, and honestly, some very impressive eye makeup.

The twist is, none of it is not about impressing men. If anything, it's about trolling them and the rest of the world by faking dumb, dropping out of "elitist" expectations, and pushing back against the idea that hyper-femininity is something to be ashamed of.

Now, what started as an online subculture has bled out into the mainstream, and is attracting critics, who are worried it's doing more harm than good.

In episode one of the new season of Schmeitgeist, Ange Lavoipierre goes inside the bimboism trend, and finds out what it's like to play the bimbo, from a comedian who's made it her job.

Schmeitgeist returns! It's the pop culture podcast from ABC Everyday which decodes the biggest and weirdest cultural trends of the moment, from feminist bimbos to sexy internet Catholics.

The Millennial Era is coming to an end. But what's taking its place? Flawless Instagram face is being rapidly replaced by first take, blurry unedited and even deliberately unflattering posts, as a fever for apparent authenticity takes hold. The number one app in the world is BeReal, which promises to show a less filtered version of people's lives. In fact, the new gold standard is to keep your face and maybe even your real name off the internet altogether, with Gen Z opting for a more anonymous version of life online. Today on Schmeitgeist, for our season finale, we're zooming in on the new, less curated, more chaotic and honest way of being on the internet, and what it's doing for us.

Schmeitgeist is a weekly pop culture podcast from ABC Everyday about why we love what we love, hosted by Ange Lavoipierre.