Approaching her 70th birthday, Gail Rice booked herself an appointment with a sex worker. She'd never done anything like it in her life. As a younger woman, Gail had enjoyed a string of sexual and romantic partners. As the years passed, her sexual currency dwindled and she was hungry for intimacy. But exchanging money for sex taught Gail much more about herself than she was expecting. This is a story about erotic power, ageing and finding the courage to ask for what you want. What to listen to n...
Aug 18, 2025•29 min
Ozempic has entered the group chat. Since GLP-1 agonist drugs burst onto the scene, they've been hailed as a weight-loss game changer, but they've also raised uncomfortable questions about what bodies are acceptable, or not. For years, the body inclusivity movement pushed back against the idea that only thin bodies can be 'healthy' but Ozempic & co are drowning out this message. So, what do these drugs mean for fat liberation? And how can we shift our collective thinking around weight and mo...
Aug 11, 2025•32 min
Having blah sex? You've CUM to the right place. Dr Emily Nagoski has the tools for you. The renowned sex educator and author of Come as You Are, Burnout and Come Together brings the wisdom of psychology and sex research to the fore. She chats with Yumi Stynes about the science behind our sex drives and how we can bring back the chutzpah in the bedroom. (R) You might also like: Is everyone having better sex than me? https://bit.ly/4okf9LO Perimenopause: how to have better sex https://ab.co/47bAC3...
Aug 04, 2025•32 min
Unrelenting standards, high expectations and a fierce, reprimanding inner critic. Perfectionism is often celebrated, but striving for flawlessness comes at a cost. There’s lots of ways we, as women feel pressure to be perfect: be the perfect partner, the perfect mother, have the perfect body. But, of course, perfectionism is always out of reach. So, how can we learn to be kinder to ourselves and let go, even just a little? Yumi Stynes meets women whose perfectionism has consumed their lives. She...
Jul 28, 2025•31 min
Hannah Diviney never saw herself reflected in pop culture. And she definitely didn't see herself as the object of desire. Growing up with cerebral palsy, Hannah watched on as rom-coms and teen dramas depicted able-bodied bombshells fall in love, snog their guts out and have sex. All these experiences, it seemed, were out of reach for her. It meant that Hannah had the demanding job of being her own role model. She had to be the change she wanted to see. You might also like: Sex and the D word You...
Jul 21, 2025•22 min
Have you ever experienced 'the ick'? It's that sudden, visceral feeling of being put off by someone you're dating. Maybe it's their flat cap, the way they chew, or how they laugh. Stories of the ick are prolific online, but it leaves us with a question — what causes it? To separate red flags from disgust, we get into the psychology of the ick — why you might feel icky, if it should be a deal breaker, and what it says about your own attachment style. This episode comes from our science friends at...
Jul 18, 2025•30 min
'Bounce back' culture can find someone else to pick on, we're celebrating bodies who've given birth. And this episode isn't just for the mums. It's for everyone who's ever felt the bod they were given this earth to roam in isn't good enough. Yumi Stynes meets women who've fought the insidious pressures on mums' bodies and found a new appreciation for themselves. Featuring: burns survivor and author Turia Pitt, founder of the Australian Birth Stories podcast Sophie Walker, body image researcher D...
Jul 14, 2025•33 min
Emotional labour is the overlooked cousin of the mental load. It's managing the feelings of people around us, from being a shoulder to cry on to cheering on your colleagues. Taking the time to check in on relatives and making sure the fridge is stocked with everyone's favourite foods. Emotional labour is invisible yet vital work that falls more heavily on women. Journalist Rose Hackman reckons it's time women are recognised, and even compensated for this emotional output. Rose chats to Yumi Styn...
Jul 07, 2025•26 min
Welcome to the world of swingers, where the libidos are high but so are the stakes. Join Yumi Stynes as she heads to a swinger's club and learns what it takes to open up a relationship without breaking trust. Meet the women in the swinging scene and find out what they get out of it (besides the orgasms). This episode will change the way you think about swinging, and maybe even re-frame your approach to intimacy. (R) You might also like: What we need men to know about sex How to have great sex Th...
Jun 30, 2025•28 min
When Jamila Rizvi was dealing with the emotional sucker punch of a brain tumour diagnosis, she needed a friend who understood what she was going through. Enter, writer and comedian Rosie Waterland. Rosie knows what it's like to live with a broken brain. A childhood marked by abuse and trauma has left her struggling with complex PTSD throughout her adulthood. Rosie and Jamila have very different illnesses but lots in common. They chat with Yumi Stynes about how the world views physical and mental...
Jun 23, 2025•33 min
Does your partner feel more like a housemate than a lover? Have you lost your spark in the overflowing laundry basket? Resentment got you snarking at each other? Get yourself to the relationship ER! If things are flatlining and you want your partnership to survive, there are treatment options. Yumi Stynes meets women who have brought their relationships back from the dead. Plus, sex and relationships therapist, Toya Ricci shares advice on how to build healthier, long-lasting connections. This ep...
Jun 16, 2025•33 min
A morning phone call from her doctor confirmed Jessie Tu's worst fears. She'd lost the baby she was carrying. Jessie and her partner had tried for months to get pregnant, and the news sparked a specific kind of grief she hadn't encountered before. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Jessie was raised with the idea that discipline and hard work gets you results. But this was a test she couldn't ace. Jessie's path to pregnancy and loss made her confront questions about what it means to be a fami...
Jun 09, 2025•30 min
Fillers, Botox, and injectables — they're everywhere! There was a time when getting needles in your face was a big deal. But these days, getting a 'tweakment' is as easy-peasy as getting a mani pedi. It's not just 69-year-old Kris Jenner who looks like a teenager now. Your hairdresser, barista, and the mums at the school gate are doing a Benjamin Button. In this episode, Yumi Stynes chats to women who have regular cosmetic jabs to find out their motivations. Plus, Dr Jasmine Fardouly from the Un...
Jun 02, 2025•34 min
In a sex saturated world, it's easy to think that everyone's having hotter, kinkier, more interesting sex than you are. But are they really? Yumi Stynes gathers together sex therapist, Georgia Grace, author Alyx Gorman and comedian Alex Lee for an urgent group chat unpacking what it means to have a satisfying sex life and why comparisons to others are a boner killer. This episode contains references to sex, marriage, orgasm gap, orgasm, lesbian, masturbation, queerness, relationships, sex positi...
May 26, 2025•33 min
Your parents are elderly. Your kids need you. And it's up to you to tend to the needs of everyone. Welcome to the sandwich generation. The bad news is you'll be wading through a ton of logistical, financial and medical obstacles while watching your folks decline. The good news is you're not alone. Join Yumi Stynes in meeting two women doing their best in the middle of a sandwich, with some tips on getting your sh*t together before everything falls apart. Plus, clinical psychologist Nasalifya Nam...
May 19, 2025•31 min
Coffee enemas? Healing jade yoni eggs? Raw milk? No, nope, nup. Dr Jen Gunter is calling bullsh*t on the internet's wellness industry. Dr Gunter is on a crusade against disinformation. As a gynaecologist and internationally renowned women's health expert, she calls out influencers promoting harmful treatments and nonsense supplements for profit. And she's not afraid to take on Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop and vaginal steaming products in the process. Join Yumi Stynes as she gets a lesson in how to spo...
May 12, 2025•30 min
Loneliness hurts. And we know it's bad for us, worse than smoking or obesity. Even though a third of us are lonely, we're embarrassed to say so. So, what would happen if we talked about our loneliness openly? And how can we build more meaningful connections? Yumi Stynes speaks to women who are lonely, one within a marriage and one hoping to find a partner, to understand the toll it can take. Plus, psychologist Dr Bella Ingram shares tips on how we can insulate ourselves from the chill of being l...
May 05, 2025•32 min
Do you need to pee at all hours of the day? Pelvic floor got you down? Are things a getting saggy down there like like a rogue bit of pizza dough or like Gary Oldman's face? There are some medical reasons why you might need to constantly rush to the loo, but the good news is in most cases your bladder is deconditioned, and you need to get your urinary tract back into ship-shape form. Tegan Taylor and Noman Swan, hosts of What's That Rash podcast are here to help!
Apr 30, 2025•20 min
When filmmaker Anna Broinowski turned 50, she stopped giving any f*cks about what other people thought of her. Stopped prettying herself, being concerned with niceness, and exhaled. Certified badass Gina Chick spent 67 days in the literal wilderness living off the land to win Alone Australia. Jessie Tu refuses to adhere to the male gaze. So, what happens to us women when we stop playing by the Good Girl guidebook and start living by our own rules? And what does it mean to live dangerously? Yumi ...
Apr 28, 2025•27 min
Are chick flicks and rom-coms your secret indulgence but you feel too embarrassed to admit it? Caroline O'Donoghue, host of the hit podcast, Sentimental Garbage, says it's time to stop apologising for the culture we love. Under the tongue-in-cheek banner 'Justice for Dumb Women', O'Donoghue celebrates the pop-culture we've long been told we should feel ashamed for loving, from Sex and the City to Taylor Swift (and Twilight). So, get out the friendship bracelets and drop the cynicism as Yumi Styn...
Apr 23, 2025•19 min
Our lady gardens aren't meant to smell like roses but if things are overly whiffy downstairs it might mean something more serious is going on. Bacterial vaginosis, or BV, is a common vaginal infection that can cause a stinky, fishy discharge. BV is not only uncomfortable, it can be hella embarrassing and hard to get rid of. But in good news for vaginas everywhere, researchers have discovered that BV can be sexually transmitted and treating male partners can knock it on the head. In this episode ...
Apr 21, 2025•27 min
What does the manosphere and the rise of online misogyny mean for our relationships with boys and men? The Netflix drama Adolescence shows the violent consequences of being steeped in hateful messages about women. It follows 13-year-old Jamie, an incel, angry at the world because he's been sexually rejected by a girl. The show has started conversations about the real-world consequences of online misogyny. Some boys are drawn to the manosphere by the promise of bigger muscles, getting laid and ti...
Apr 14, 2025•27 min
Charlotte's sugar daddy took her to the fanciest restaurant in Melbourne. Soraya's gave her a trust fund. Meet the attractive young women dating rich older men as Yumi Stynes peeks into the lives of sugar babies. Find out how the online sugar dating world (the sugar bowl) facilitates the kind of romance you pay for, and what can go wrong when sex mixes with money, wealth and power. Yes, there's a holiday in Thailand that goes terribly awry (think White Lotus, with less guns). Plus, researcher Sr...
Apr 07, 2025•33 min
Great sex isn't inevitable. If you're a straight woman, chances are you've enjoyed far fewer orgasms than your sexual partner(s). And yes, we know, it's not just about the big O, but isn't it time the ladies got on equal frotting footing and closed the pleasure gap? Enter: Alyx Gorman. In her book All Women Want, Alyx investigates what makes for the best sex, how to get there, and how to communicate what you want. She interviews women of different ages and life stages, dives in the science behin...
Mar 31, 2025•32 min
If you think perimenopause is reserved for mid-life, think again. When other 20 and 30-somethings are out partying or decorating the nursery, how do you cope with night sweats, hot flashes, brain fog and a tired libido? What's it like to have the body of a young woman, filled with the hormones of someone decades older? Yumi Stynes meets women going through perimenopause far earlier than they expected to learn how they manage their symptoms and cope with the prospect of infertility. She also sits...
Mar 24, 2025•33 min
What happens to your sex life in perimenopause? When Salt-N-Pepa wrote Let's Talk About Sex, they didn't get to that bit. Well, Yumi Stynes is here to update the lyrics! In this no-holds-barred episode she meets women who have experienced changes to their libido and sexual function during this phase of life and finds out what help is at hand. Yumi chats to women about what got them back in the groove and sits down with sex and perimenopause specialist Dr Sheryl Kingsberg, Professor in Reproducti...
Mar 17, 2025•27 min
Is perimenopause brain fog jamming up your workday? Are you constantly in a bad mood or irrationally angry at your kids who are only as annoying as usual? Is your memory failing you for the simplest words? Riding the hormonal rollercoaster of perimenopause has a huge impact on our brains — from mood to memory, sleep to stress. Come hang with Yumi Stynes as she meets women convinced that they're losing their minds or even going through dementia, but are, in fact, in the depths of perimenopause. P...
Mar 10, 2025•27 min
Hot flashes. Night sweats. Aching joints. Sore boobs. Welcome to your body in perimenopause! In episode one of this four-part series, Yumi Stynes speaks to women in the thick of perimenopause and battling physical symptoms. She also sits down with Dr Susan Davis, endocrinologist and world-leading expert on sex hormones and ageing to learn the best treatments for bothersome symptoms and how look after yourself in this stage of life. No sweat! Essential listening if you're going through perimenopa...
Mar 03, 2025•31 min
Perimenopause: it's a huge physical, mental and sexual upheaval in a woman's life and yet, there's so much confusion as to how to make it through. Perimenopause is the months and years leading up to the last period, where a woman's hormones get feisty on their way down to retirement. This hormone fluctuation can lead to a range of symptoms, from hot flashes and night sweats to painful sex, mood swings and RAGE! In this four-part series, Yumi Stynes speaks to women in the thick of perimenopause a...
Feb 26, 2025•3 min
What's it like to carry and give birth to a child for someone else? What compels a woman to take on something so profound? There's more to surrogacy than cooking a bun in an 'oven', it's complex as hell. In this episode Yumi Stynes meets women who have been surrogates and hears about the joy and the heartache the experience can bring. This episode contains references to surrogacy, family, baby, parenting, adoption, Surrogacy Act, transfer of parentage, counselling, depression, mental health, pre...
Feb 24, 2025•30 min
