Babies. Some women know they want them, others know they absolutely don't, and then there are the women who find themselves trying to make the call one way or another before biology beats them to it. But how do you weigh up something so monumental? And can you ever be sure that you've made the "right" decision when it comes to starting a family? Yumi Stynes sits down with journalist and writer, Gina Rushton and comedian, Penny Greenhalgh to discuss this mother of all decisions. This episode cont...
Feb 17, 2025•27 min
Our best friends are our ride-or-die, snort-laughing, crisis solving buttresses. But what happens when a friendship ends? In a romantic break-up, there's a cultural handbook instructing us all to sanctioned crying, bitching and ice-cream eating. Playlists, movies and a canon of literature are ready to validate the catastrophic pain of heartbreak. But with romantic break-ups, there aren't the same support systems in place to help us put back together the pieces. Yumi Stynes speaks to women who've...
Feb 10, 2025•27 min
Swipe, date, sex, repeat. So went the life of Hope Woodard, constantly on the apps and looking for validation in the form of male attention. This perpetual cycle started from a young age and by the time she was in her mid-twenties, Hope was done. Done with terrible first dates. Done with being ghosted. Done with men. So, she set herself a challenge, to give up dating and sex for a year. Hope was going boysober. Hope chats with Yumi Stynes about the pleasure of finally getting to know herself, wh...
Feb 05, 2025•21 min
When Dr Rena Malik posted a video on her YouTube channel called 'Where's the G-Spot?', twelve million people tuned in to hear the answer. The urologist and sex educator has carved out a space as a reliable and trustworthy source of sex education. But Dr Rena hasn't always been so open. She grew up in an Indian family that didn't talk about sex, no sir. Then she went to medical school, where she learnt about the female body and its magical powers. She says the more you know about your anatomy and...
Feb 03, 2025•26 min
Menstruating. An ordinary bodily function. Like breathing or sweating or digesting, it's as natural as the hairs on our heads, period (pun intended). And even though there has been some progress in our openness in talking about periods, we're still largely a bit…grossed out. Yumi Stynes investigates the lingering shame around women's bleeding and speaks to women who are shifting the tide on how we think about periods. (R) This episode contains references to menstruation, period, shame, women, bl...
Jan 27, 2025•24 min
Saggy boobs, leathery skin, becoming invisible... is getting older as grim as it sounds? Ageing presents a unique challenge to us ladies, and while there's no stopping gravity, there are things to be excited about — from giving less f#*@% to not being afraid to ask for what you want in the bedroom. Yumi Stynes gets the low-down on what the hell happens to our bodies, brains and spirits as we age and how best to take care of ourselves. (R) This episode contains references to cosmetic surgery, age...
Jan 20, 2025•30 min
Mind-blowing. Intoxicating. Earth-shattering. Meet the women having the best sex of their lives after years on end of ho-hum humping. Yumi Stynes speaks to ladies who have levelled up their sex lives, learns how they made it to the promised land, and whether there's room for us all to join them. (R) This episode contains references to sex, pleasure, vulva, intercourse, marriage, dating, divorce.
Jan 13, 2025•27 min
What if being single wasn’t a problem to be solved but a state of bliss? For some women, living without an “other half” is the key to being complete. But even though more women than ever are single by choice, we live in a society that values couple-dom. Marriage and motherhood are still held up as the ultimate end goals. Single women are viewed with pity or worse, scorn. Living alone? Cue the lady jokes. Yumi Stynes talks to women who are happy to be free from romantic relationships and whose li...
Jan 06, 2025•28 min
Cheers! For a lot of us alcohol is a reward after a hard day, a way to unwind, a key part of our celebrations, but our love of a drink comes at a cost. Some women are regularly drinking at dangerous rates while others find it difficult to go without. Beyond the hangover fuzz, booze can take a toll on our health and relationships. So why are we so keen on a drink despite knowing the risks? And how can we learn to put the cap back on the bottle when we’ve had enough? Yumi Stynes talks to someone c...
Dec 30, 2024•22 min
Penny Moodie’s childhood was marked by catastrophic thoughts: that her parents would die in an accident, that she had contracted HIV, that she was pregnant, even though she’d never had sex. These all-consuming anxieties wouldn't leave Penny, they occupied a huge part of her life, and she developed compulsions around them which she believed would keep her and the people she loved safe.
Dec 23, 2024•25 min
Ahh Christmas, the festival of eating, drinking and cranky mums. Because in order to have the beautifully set table, thoughtful presents and delicious glazed ham, someone's got to prepare and plan it all. And that someone, is usually a woman, who, by 5pm, has had enough. Is there a Christmas elf who can help out? Or maybe it's time for blokes to step up and take on their fair share of the mental load. Yumi Stynes and Monty Dimond share their tips on how to redistribute the labour on and before t...
Dec 16, 2024•15 min
Note: This episode contains explicit content. What is it like to be a professional dominatrix? To indulge in the power play between dominant and submissive for a living? In this special bonus episode, Yumi Stynes goes into a domme's dungeon to find out what really goes on beyond the whips and chains. She discovers a world that's full of power, sexual fantasy, pleasure and pain.
Dec 11, 2024•14 min
Note: This episode contains explicit content. Kink, or BDSM is often played out behind closed doors. Because it's hidden from view, there's an assumption that it's just a few people at the fringes who are into kink, while the majority of us have vanilla sex. But what if interest in kink was more common than you think? Yumi Stynes meets three women embracing their kinky side. From findom (financial domination) to humiliation and cuckolding, their tastes go well beyond missionary.
Dec 09, 2024•28 min
Psychotherapist Esther Perel is one of the most influential thinkers on sex and relationships in the world. She helps us make sense of how we relate to the people around us and what it means to be intimate. Is intimacy just in the bedroom? Or can we have intimacy with our closest friends? How about with the guy at the coffee shop? And when we do disrobe and have sex with someone, how can we get what we desire out of the experience, whether it's a one-time thing or for the hundredth time. Esther ...
Dec 02, 2024•43 min
It's no surprise your sex life takes a hit as a parent. You're thinly spread. There are so many things to manage in your head, from cutting up cucumbers to potty training and paying the plumber on time. Getting it on with a partner, or even by yourself drops down the priority list, below napping. Masturbation can seem like a laughable indulgence. Because when, oh when, does a sleep deprived mum with a job, a partner and a kid get time, and a dimly lit room to bring herself to O-town? Yumi Stynes...
Nov 25, 2024•14 min
Egg freezing is sold as a way for women to hack their fertility and buy some more time on the biological clock. Fertility companies are marketing the procedure as an insurance policy, but some experts argue it's better thought of as a lottery. Rates of egg freezing have almost doubled in recent years but the number of people coming back to use those eggs are staggeringly low and even then, there's no guarantee of a baby. Then there's the cost, between $5000-$10,000 per cycle. Alongside egg freez...
Nov 18, 2024•33 min
Samhita had it all. As the executive editor of Teen Vogue she was living the Devil Wears Prada life — fashion shows, fancy dinners and towering heels. She was a girlboss. But at the height of her success, cracks began to appear. She was anxious, burnt out and her body was falling apart. But Samhita was at New York Fashion Week in a fur coat and clutching a Gucci handbag, having just put Malala Yousafzai on the cover of her magazine, who was she to complain? After spending a lifetime trying to cl...
Nov 11, 2024•26 min
There's an expectation that couples share a bed, but what if sleep isn't compatible with being in the same room as your other half? Maybe they snore, maybe they starfish, or maybe you just need a few hours without another human touching you. Is a sleep divorce, AKA, having separate bedrooms, the answer? There's a trend towards normalising sleeping separately from your partner. Cameron Diaz is doing it. So are the Beckhams. But does this arrangement spell the end of sex and intimacy? Or does it m...
Nov 04, 2024•17 min
Is Ozempic the drug of our lifetime? Since it burst onto the scene it's become synonymous with weight loss, with everyone from A-list celebrities to your next-door neighbour rapidly slimming down. The popularity of the drug and others like it such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, has led to demand outstripping supply, with the price of these medications falling out of reach for some. And along with the cheekbones Ozempic face has unearthed, it's also forcing us to have some uncomfortable conversations ar...
Oct 28, 2024•31 min
There aren't many people on your Instagram feed who are as loved and as loathed as Abbie Chatfield. Ever since Abbie shot to fame as the slut-shamed villain on The Bachelor Australia in 2019, she's been a public and controversial figure who's hard to look away from. Five years and almost 500K followers later, Abbie's built an empire on sharing her trauma dumps, UTIs, political rants and sexcapades. Abbie's openness has earnt her lots of fans but it's also made her the target of sexist and violen...
Oct 21, 2024•27 min
What if your man has another, equally important woman in his life: his mum? For some sons, the aprons strings are tied so tight, it’s impossible to compete with mummy. She’s his number one fan, dotes on him and interferes in his life, including his relationships. It’s not sexy. So, can a mama’s boy ever reform and stand on their own two feet in a relationship? Or will you always come off second best? Yumi Stynes and Jess McGuire lay down the law when it comes to being with a mama’s boy. Hint: th...
Oct 14, 2024•16 min
As we get older, wiser, more resilient, and better placed to back seat drive, the world does not reward us. Or our grey hair. If the advances of human progress can make a potato chip taste like a beef rendang curry, why are women still, after all this time and progress, so judged by the way we look? The Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery estimates Australians spend around $1 billion a year on cosmetic procedures. We're talking facelifts, tummy tucks, brow lifts, neck lifts, rhinoplasties, ...
Oct 07, 2024•32 min
Aubrey Gordon is a fat woman. She's not on a diet or trying to get thinner and that pisses some people off, but she's done apologising. This self-acceptance has been hard fought. All her life, Aubrey has had to swallow comments about her size from strangers and family alike. Like all of us, she was force-fed the idea that there is only one ideal body: a thin one. Aubrey's resistance started with her blog, Your Fat Friend, where she wrote about what it's like to live in the world as a fat person ...
Sep 30, 2024•27 min
You're on a date and there's a spark, the chat is great, the vibes are flowing. But come the time to disrobe, all that potential sexual brilliance comes crashing down. They're a dud root. So what on earth do you do if you've got a connection with someone, but they're not rocking your socks off? How do you have a conversation about what you like, without hurting their feelings? And can you ever turn a jackhammer into a magical orgasm wand? Yumi Stynes and sex therapist Aleks Trkulja get under the...
Sep 23, 2024•16 min
The Other Woman. The bit on the side. Side hoe. She's the biggest villain of them all. She's probably younger, hotter and she's left the girl-code far behind, because THAT woman is stealing your man, girl. So, who is 'the other woman' and what's driving her towards married men anyway? In this episode, Yumi sits down with women dating men who are teken and finds out how they navigate their own messy relationships and emotions.
Sep 16, 2024•28 min
Jill Stark spent most of her life defined by alcohol. Either as a hard-drinking party girl, spurred on by a culture of drinking as a journalist, or as the poster child for sobriety, trapped by a public identity that revolved around abstinence. Yumi and Jill talk about her journey to genuine sobriety on her own terms, and how she has learned who she is without booze. Resources: National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015 Alcoholics Anonymous: https://aa.org.au/ 1300 222 222 Hello Sunday ...
Sep 09, 2024•30 min
We’re all about labia love here at Ladies, but it seems that some women are less than enthusiastic about their lower lips. So what’s the real deal on the labiaplasty? Will cosmetic surgery really help restore the labia love to those who just aren’t feeling it? Yumi is here to unpack the problems with our flaps and give us the low-down on the down-there surgery.
Sep 02, 2024•28 min
Tick, tock, tick, tock... can you hear that? It’s your biological clock and it’s about to blow! For some, deciding whether to have a baby isn’t just about fertility, it’s also about weighing up whether becoming a parent is the path best taken. Never fear, Yumi Stynes has perched herself behind the mic to hold your hand and navigate this tricky time-bomb.
Aug 26, 2024•15 min
At 31, Jamila Rizvi’s life changed forever. The discovery of a rare brain tumour knocked the ass-kicking, over-achieving media advisor and young mum sideways. Jamila had two rounds of brain surgery, followed by radiation, and now lives with chronic health conditions. She’s had to re-map what life looks like and let go of the idea that she can control what lies ahead. Despite the challenges, Jamila’s found strength in herself and by leaning on those closest to her. In this episode, Jamila and Yum...
Aug 19, 2024•24 min
We all have days when we look in the mirror and think “who is that hideous moll staring back at me??” But what if those days are constant and you feel like a loser in the attractiveness lottery? Let’s face it, being hot is a social currency and the pressure to look a certain way as a woman is constant. So how can we let go of the ideal beauty standard (whatever that is on a given day) and learn to love the image looking back at us? Yumi Stynes is here with her gal pals Myf Warhurst and Zan Rowe ...
Aug 12, 2024•15 min
