Everything Is Content - One Battle After Another, Greta & Getting Back With An Ex

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

Hello content fans! Let's start the day off right with some pop culture convos. How about the explosive new Paul Thomas Anderson film, a much-maligned activist and getting back together with your ex?First (and with no major spoilers we promise!) One Battle After Another, where Leonardo Di Caprio plays Bob, a washed up revolutionary who has to dust off his go-bag and try to remember his code words to save his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti) from an unhinged white nationalist (Sean Penn) who is on a clean-up mission. Right Wing pundits are calling for its cancellation while critics are stoking Academy Awards buzz- and we get into the lot.Up next we talk about Greta Thunberg's recent detainment by Israel and why we think she's been ripe for critique, hate and suppression ever since she picked up her very first protest sign.And lastly we're asking whether Bennifer are back on, just pals or a secret third thing that we couldn't possibly begin to comprehend?Oenone's been loving Steve.Beth's been loving Marina Abramović's Balkan Erotic EpicRuchira's been loving nothing because she's been a poorly baby this week :( We miss her wisdom and wit and can't wait to have her back next week!Thank you so much for listening, as always please do leave us a rating and a review on your podcast player app, love you byeeeee O,R,B xxMiller's Girl Global Sumud FlotillaDazed - How To Date When They're Your Ex One Battle After Another Is a Powerhouse of Tenderness and FuryIn collaboration with Cue Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Beth and I'm Anoni and this is Everything is content the pop culture podcast that goes there if it's been posted online we can and will turn it into discourse we're paying the bill of content before it kisses the mahogany grain so that you don't have to you may have noticed our beloved Ruchera is not here sadly she is very under the weather so unable to record everyone say get well soon Ruchera this week on the podcast we're looking at Greta Thunberg, a young woman who is an inspiration to us all, Leonardo DiCaprio's latest film, One Battle After Another. And last, but by no means least,

everyone's favourite, on again, off again couple, Benefer. But first, and only what have you been loving this week? So, it was a love because I thought it was really good, but it's also quite harrowing and depressing. But I watched the other day, Steve, the new Netflix film with Killeen Murphy. Have you watched it? I haven't. Everyone has been telling me, I mean, is it on Netflix now? Because I feel like in the cinema for like four seconds. And now everyone's like, no, no, it's Netflix number one or something. Yeah. So it came out on the cinema, maybe last, we can't know, maybe last five or something. And so it's based on Max Porter's novel, Shy. And it basically is set in a school in the 1990s in the UK that's for extremely disruptive young men. And Steve is the headmaster or like runs this school. Played by Killian Murphy. It's an incredible performance. And it's basically,

basically about his relationship with these young men, his own relationship with his mental health, and also just kind of even at that point in time, I don't think it's necessarily based on a specific true place, but just this idea of lack of funding for people in society that need rehabilitation. It's really moving. It's really sad. But it's, it's really beautiful. But it is quite, you have to really concentrate. And it's also not the best thing to watch for bed, which I did. So for some reason, I thought it was about a teacher having a relationship with a student. I think because there was a similar film out quite recently with the Hobbit, What's his name?

Oh, shoot, was his name. The little, not the little man, I don't say that. Yeah, well, I guess he's a little and Hobart. But do you know what I mean? Him and Jenna Ortega, I think, had a film out. Oh, yes. I put this in the same category and having heard you explain that and everyone being kind of like really, really like, you must go and see this is a very, very good film.

I'm like, it's not the same film, is it? It's very, very different concept. No, it's not. And was that film, that one with Jenna Ortega, is that based on My Dark Vanessa or no, it's just a similar trope? I think a very similar trope because I love my dark finessell and I would have gone to see that. Me too. But this I just kind of avoided. But Steve does sound fantastic. I feel like I've not seen enough in Murphy in some time because I never saw Oppenheimer. Like I just have not seen him properly in some time since, I don't know, Peaky Blinders season one rewatch. He's so great in this and he's such a, I think he's an extraordinary actor and it's such a him film to do because I wonder how big it would have been as a film had he not been the main star in it.

Yeah. I would recommend it. It's quite slow pace. I can imagine someone. people kind of not being asked with it because it's drab and it's slow and it's dark but it's really beautiful and even just for killian murphy's performance i would say that it's it's worth it what have you been loving this week beth luckily i actually i actually do have something this week because i'm also like just feeling a little bit ill this week and i wasn't really consuming much the only thing i did consume and i'm not going to get into this lest we have another hacks type situation is love is blind i do nothing but watch love is blind they keep putting out too many series so i'm just i'm not touching it but if anyone listening wants to talk to me about it my tms are open

because it's again another juicy series. What I have been loving this week is last night I went to Marina Abramovich's Balkan Erotic Epic at the Manchester Aviva Studios. It was a private dress rehearsal, so I think it kind of all went on as it will for like the main performances. I think opening night is tonight, Thursday the night, by the time this comes out, it will be underway. It is a four hour.

I think it's like a, it was sold to me as like an opera. I didn't read anything about it until I was on the way up to Manchester, because my boyfriend got tickets. One of his, someone he works with was like, I'm there. You can come and find me like during the performance. I was like, what are you talking about during the performance? You can't do that. Read a little bit more. And it's like an immersive space. It's like this huge room with like many, many things that you can kind of walk through and see. There's different things happening. Different plots, I guess, progressing. But it is very immersive. It's very beautiful. It was a lot going on. I can't say too much. One, because I think anyone who has tickets or might get

tickets. It will not be helped by me being specific about it, but I'm going to read a little bit from the website. A four-hour ritual where ancient myth meets performance art, Balkan erotic epic explores the eroticism, spirituality and traditions of Abramovich's homeland through 13 visceral scenes. Brought to life by a cast fever, 70 performers, dancers, musicians and singers, the experience unfolds across the Viva Studios. And there's a few. There's something called Fertility, right, which is, I mean, it's described here as like a fevered ritual where bodies writhe against the ground and desperate call for fertility. But it was so hypnotic. Like there were some things where there was a lot happening and the scene changed and Marina came out and she was a part of

it and there was sort of singing, dancing. There seemed to be a narrative in a way that like someone like me would recognise a narrative. In other parts, it was like, oh, you are humping the ground. In other parts, it's like this is a fight scene. There is a lot of nudity. It's 18 plus. They put your phones in little pouches for obvious reasons. It's so visually rich. Like you're walking around. You're watching people writhe and dance. I guess. she is. I was talking to my boyfriend about this because he actually knows about art. I do not. He was talking about like Marina as this like durational performer and, and how people are trained in this. Because I was sort of thinking four hours, how is anyone going to stand up for four hours, let alone be dancing, be engaging sexually with the ground, be like in this fight scene.

Some things are really frenetic. There's other things that are so slow that you're like, that would actually be so much harder to do for four hours. It is just the most, I mean, the set dressing, I think you can say this. So many big penises. It was, it's just the. The scale of it. I can't tell you that I fully understood it. The scale of the penises. I tell you the scale of the penises. Do you think they were real though because... The penises? Yeah, because think about Jason Isaacs was fake and now I don't trust anything. Well, I will say these ones were not real because they genuinely... I walked in. There was a six-foot man. You could have stacked three on top of them and he would not have reached the beginning of this penis. But the penises that I saw and the vulva's all real. All real. I saw so much. It was gorgeous.

I've been so excited for you to talk about this since you told me because I immediately Googled it. That's really funny that you didn't know because I think I knew, probably before you then. Yeah. And it was reminding me, because have you ever gone to Punch Drunks some massive theatre shows

in London? I've never gone to anything like this before in my life. Okay, so I went to one a couple of years ago maybe and it was burnt city, it was punched drunk, put on by Punch Trunk

and it was in this, I can't remember where it, I want to say it was in like, Waltham, no, can't remember where it was. It was in this huge kind of warehouse and every room was a mass of theatre. You wore these big,

so you get given this white mask with a long nose, you can't see anyone. And your phone is also put away. Same kind of. of vibe as what you were at where each room tells a different story. You could kind of follow it narratively or you could get a bit lost and a bit confused. Loads of nudity, loads of sex. It was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. But I think the fact that this is Marina Abramovich is

even cooler. But the fact that it was a dress rehearsal, did a boyfriend get tickets through work or was this open to the public? Like how many people were there? Do you think it was even more intimate? Were there less people than would be at the real thing? I would imagine not. It was actually really, really full. So it was, he got them through work. And I think it was like industry connections, people invited personally by her, and probably people that had worked on it behind the scenes. But it was very, very full, but it was not, you'd occasionally see a cluster of people somewhere, like when she came out or when she was sort of spotted in the performance for the first time, people sort of gravitated quite slowly over there. And then

it was sort of slightly busy there. It was less easy to move around. But it was never chocker, but it was, it was a very full room. And with this like kind of creepy long carpet that you just immediately sunk into, people were sitting down, people were really taking stuff in. People sort of talking quietly, which seemed to be okay. It felt intimate just because it's this big, dark room. But I think it's going to be, it's like 85 pounds ticket. I think it's going to be not heaving, but I think, I assume a part of it is that there's quite a lot of people in there. You're kind of weaving between people. It's very much like you say, like a choose your own adventure. The narrative becomes, I guess, whatever you interact with it in, because you can leave

and go downstairs, get yourself a drink, get some food, discuss some of it, go back up, which I really liked. I could have done four hours because actually we went to the Lou, get a drink. And I was like, how long? I said, I did my phone. I was like, how long do you think we were in there? And we asked someone, we'd been in there for like over an hour. It felt, I was like, no, no, it's like 35, 40 minutes. It was fantastic. So I just, I just had the time of my life. I really, if anyone's going to see this, or if anyone's like, okay, I'm in Manchester. I want to go see something great, unlike anything else, really do consider this. I think, and only you actually would love this. That is so incredible. Yeah, I would love

that. And you remind him, because I loved Punch drunk. And I'm sure they do them more regularly, maybe, but it's certainly like a step up in terms of it's in between going to a gallery, going to a show, going to some sort of, it's also more titillating because there often is a lot of nudity. You feel you're involved. It's immersive is what we're trying to say. That sounds great. It was so nice not to have my phone. I really want to get one of those little magnetic pouches for my house because once it was in there, I was like, I'm free. I'm so free. Like we went downstairs and I'm like, do you want unlock your phone? You know, while you're down here, that's okay. I was like, no, it stays in prison. Look at me actually having an artistic one. Actually having a high brow. Routcher would be so proud of me. so proud so first up Paul Thomas Anderson's action comedy one battle after another has been the film of the past month it has left wing rebellion car chasers

and white nationalist cult known as the Christmas adventurers perfidia Beverly Hills a left wing revolutionary is played incredibly by Tiana Taylor she leads the group known as the French 75 a rebel group who sets off explosives and targets detention areas that notably resemble modern US ice ones, with hundreds of

immigrants trapped in cages and tents to free the people inside. She starts hooking up with another member, Pat Calhoun, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, but it's clear the two are very different. Perfidia is cocky and has big dick energy in spades, and Pat is more submissive and in awe of her. Things become complicated when Captain Stephen J. Lockjaw, played by Sean Penn, the detention center leader becomes sexually obsessed with her. He starts to lose his head even though she's actively trying to ruin his work. They spend a night together and after that, things were going to unravel. Perfidia is pregnant whilst all this is happening and shortly after giving birth her daughter, she walks out on Pat to continue the revolution and he goes into hiding with their

daughter. 16 years later, Captain Lockshore decides to try and find Perfidia's daughter and Pat at the same time as trying to join this white nationalist cult of powerful people. Beth, I have been itching to talk to you about this. I know you saw the film the other evening. I would love your unfiltered thoughts immediately. You know, I'm so glad that I went to see this last because we sort of felt like Domino's. Ruchera went to see it and was dying to talk about it. You went to see it.

You were itching to talk about it. And then I was like, as the last holdout, it's just a lot easier to be the last person. Absolutely. Love this film. I saw it on Tuesday night. and I feel like two days later, it's still very much in me. It is, I mean, the runtime is, I want to say it's two hours 40. The pace of it is so fantastic that I could not have told you how much time had passed.

It's different act structures. So you're like, okay, we're through this bit. This bit's happening. It did not feel like that time at all. I was absolutely so locked in to the point where, like, I'd had a glass wine and went to the every man, so I had to go to the loo at some point. I timed it very well. I sprinted there.

I sprinted back. It was, I was just locked in in a way that I don't think I have been locked in to a film in such a long time. I think if I was to choose my favourite directors just by the percentage of their work that I have watched and loved, probably would be Paul Thomas Anderson. Like, such a diverse filmography. Like I was talking to my boyfriend who has a film director about like the master, boogie nights, there will be blood. I was like, this guy just fucking does, clearly just does whatever is most interesting to him. To see this huge, big budget, action packed, so prescient. I know that, you know, films, I guess, take years and years to make to begin the process of making

a film her many years ago and for it to be this on the nose about America and where we are at. It's so, it's depressing, but it's so prescient. Honestly, it could have been written yesterday. It was so fucking, I didn't even know where to start. I mean, the act, the first act was kind of like Tiana Taylor in it. Some, like, just the most arresting performance. She is wildly talented. I actually have not seen her act before. I think she was in, I know she's been in films and one, like, really, really, critically claimed. I've not seen it. I was suddenly like, this is chef's fucking kiss. I was so, for her, especially, I was like, this is such a good vehicle for her. I just loved it. I completely agree. Initially, I didn't know how long it was and my friend Poppy booked the

tickets and then she told me it's almost three hours and I was like, shit. And then you're there and we did not, we both got a large popcorn, which by the way, it's way too big for one person. They're so big. And we were laughing because we were like, we sat down. We put our hands to our popcorn and then we just sat in silence for the whole film. Well, actually we were laughing and because it is really funny as well as being very serious. But like literally just, you know, those memes of people just shoving popcorn into their mouths. That's what we did for almost three hours on end. The acting is impeccable. I completely agree. And also from the minute it starts, you are wrapped up. Like, you kind of want to be fighting. You want to be in this battle with them. Like, the stakes are so

high. Even though it's set in this like current day adjacent America where fascism has taken over, it's almost just like, as you said, it could be now, just fast forward a little bit. It feels so on the nose. The way that the action, I was reading some bits and bobs about it as well, but it's the way that it's so fast pace, the action is moving in such a sweep. way that you're immediately caught up like there's so much going on it's one of those films that I actually want to sit down and watch again now because it's got so much happening I'm not always like a massive action person but the action in this really works because you feel like you're being swept along with everything that's going on and there was so many bits of it that I just thought

it's it's incredible to have that much levity within a subject matter that is so serious that's so prescient and doesn't take away from the world and the story and I guess the moral compass that it's following. So the initial plot of the story is 16 years prior, or 15 or 16 years prior to the current day, which is meant to be around now. So it's around like 2008. And you have this group called the French 75, which is this resistance group that's mostly made up of actually black women who are trying to take down the state, which is extremely totalitarian and fascist. They're out there doing quite violent acts of resistance. They're blowing things up. They're breaking into things. They're running around and you're completely swept up by it. And then it

fast forwards to the second act, which is 16 years later, when it's slightly slower, you've got Leonardo DiCaprio's character in hiding with his teenage daughter, they're trying to live a somewhat normal life. He's kind of pulled away from the French of 75, despite them kind of helping him get to this point where he can escape from being caught. I mean, I think Leonardo DiCaprio's acting in this is so arresting. I haven't seen him in a role. Obviously, he did like, don't look up, which I guess is his most adjacent recent film, but he is just incredible in this. But one of the things that really made me laugh the most is this isn't funny but he's obviously due to high stress his partner the mother of his child has left him he has fallen into addiction and drug abuse

and he's a bit of a layabout father with kind of like a teenage daughter who's more of the parent figure than he is and due to his distance from this resistance group he's kind of forgotten all of the language and the ways in which he meant to communicate with each other and there's a really funny thread that runs throughout the film that just kept making me laugh which is definitely I imagine meant to be a reflection of the high stakes in the way. order to enter into leftist or liberal groups is you kind of always got to get the language right. You've got to make sure that you're doing every, ticking every single box in order to be let into the group of what is, you know, lefty liberals. And so there's this constant thing that

recurs, which basically Leonardo DiCaprio's character, can never remember the codes when he wants to call the French 75. So they just keep hanging up on him. And that is probably out of the whole film. I know it sounds so stupid, but it was one of my favorite bits because it just highlights. And it's something that we're seeing within the current climate, within this free speech conversation, within these Tommy Robinson marches, within this divide of like the right as a sort of like general blanket term, are always happy to welcome anyone as a comrade, bring them in with open arms, as long as they're part of the fight, you know, come in. And then the left, it's like actually in 2002 you did say something on Twitter that we didn't like, so you're no longer allowed to be part of the crew.

That was just in that moment, it felt really satisfying to watch that. Like I felt quite smug watching it in a way because it is that thing of feeling so prescient. And I don't know when I've watched a film recently that I've had that feeling of. of it was just making me laugh. What it, it's so funny, I think, to say that because this, this film is upsetting all the right people, by which I mean, people on the right, who are already accusing this of being, you know, a liberal leftist, violent fantasy, accusing it of being like anti-family, anti-frenship, anti-community, like a rally to, to get out there and, and do what they're

doing in the film, which is this violent resistance. And it's just so easily refutable because Leonardo Capri does not play this perfect left hero that activists would model themselves on. Like, he is, as you say, this conspiracy-minded, drug-addled, former fighter who has abandoned his cause in kind of most meaningful ways in the last 15 years to raise a child and also to stay off-grid. Like, he insults liberals in it. He's on the phone to people trying to give them the password, doesn't know it. He's insulting them calling me, like, he's like, fucking liberals. He does not use politically correct language. Like, it's just a really fascinating case. And I'm looking, I did go and read a lot of the right-wing

criticism of this film. Like Ben Shapiro said, it was an apology for radical left-wing terrorism. David Marcus said for Fox News, the whole movie made me a little angry. But then I remembered that the Trump administration is cracking down on Antifa, today's very real domestic terrorists. And maybe this will be a fun movie for them to watch once they're all in jail. Like, it's just so funny to me to watch this film be really strike the hearts of these right-wing, I think bad actors, I think they are, I think they know what they're doing. But it's like, you're talking about a film made by the guy that made boogie nights. It's just, it's just really, it's darkly hilarious to me. I think it's a massive misunderstanding. There are a few other things.

Like it just, it's basically the suggestion being that this is a film that is an incitement to violence will provoke real violence. Charlie Kirk's name was invoked a few times predictably in these reviews, as I guess is his usefulness to their cause now. If you want to watch this film like a, like a stupid person, you can and you can come out with those kind of takes, but it's so expansive and you do have this very complicated character at the centre of it, who was basically the bomb guy and is now on the run looking for his daughter. It's a, it's a film about family. It's a film about community. And it is also a film about the uselessness or the usefulness inhibited by the bureaucracy of every organisation. Like no organisation is beyond this,

whether it's the white nationalist cult that we see in this film called, I want to say they're called the Christmas Adventurers, which is just again, so aptly on the nose, or whether you are, as another character is, part of an underground group, looking after immigrants, getting them safety from here to there. It's described in the film as a Latino Harriet Tubman situation, or whether you are the person that is shooting up banks, destroying the infrastructure so that fascism cannot thrive. There is every single group has its sticking points. And I found that, the bureaucracy of it, so funny. And which surprised me, because I just did not predict how I would go into this film laughing. One thing I will say,

after leaving the cinema, I was talking to my boyfriend about this, who is a film director. We both love the film. But I was quite excited about something like this, topping the box office, sort of being this fox in the hen house, like, portraying like state violence and like how merciless it is, how cold it is. You get to see the faces of like ice agents and like white nationalists and they are so plainly evil. And that felt incredible to see something that's so anti these structures. Like we are watching people be kidnapped off the street in America today right now. It is very out in the open. And I was really excited by this kind of thinking, well, I didn't want to confuse a film about activism for activism itself. But nonetheless, I was like, oh, that's kind of

exciting. And then my boyfriend sort of pointed out like the places that this is doing really well are not the red states where this messaging might kindle something like it is typically blue states and it's also I think overseas territories where it's really doing well and so I'm trying to see the good in it but it did make me feel a glimmer of something hopeful that a film like this is doing as well as it is and it's not nakedly applauding it's not straightforwardly just applauding people who do acts of revolutionary violence but it's certainly giving a human face to community and the populace and it's also giving like a very human but evil and stupid face to the people that would see this stuff done.

And I don't know, in white nationalist America, I was sort of like, damn, it could do some good, but maybe that's naive, I don't know. I agree. I think it did make me feel hopeful as well in such an interesting way. And like to go to the comedy of it all, the Christmas adventures, it's so ludicrous. These are like the most kind of evil men.

And you see them how they see themselves, which is they're sort of like an organization group who has the idea of like the greater good for humanity. And they're literally listening to Christmas songs. And it's just such a clever. I've never really seen that depiction. It's so good. And then at the heart of it also, the real power as well of the film is where it starts out with Teana Taylor's character, who is a woman who is full of resistance. And it kind of questions like, what does it mean to be truly a rebel and truly be part of the resistance? And when she's pregnant, there's this amazing scene where she's like shooting a machine gun over her pregnant belly. And Leonardo DiCaprio's character kind of goes, it's like she doesn't even know that she's pregnant. And then she obviously eventually leaves her daughter. And I think there's a really interesting examination of what it means to be a woman in the face of the resistance. And I think she said something like, this pussy is not for love. This pussy is for war or

something like that. It's just this amazing kind of like ping pong game between really laughing in the face of darkness and also like bringing into like conversations that people don't always face because especially I think in a digital age, in a privileged society, resistance sometimes looks like a tweet, which isn't the true face of it. And then this is showing something very different and very powerful. And I can see. why people are scared by this film. But as you say, it's also a film which is about like father-daughter relationships. And I think Paul Thomas Anderson has three teenage daughters. And that's a massive thrust of the film, which is also very funny, which is why I really

think it's one of those movies that I will watch again, because there is so much in it to get your teeth stuck into and you can kind of come at it from every angle. But I certainly left the cinema. Well, I kind of, I was text poppy. I was like, because I was going back home to get Astrid. And I felt like I was going back to get my daughter. Like it really kind of fired something up in me, like, where I was like, I need to be, it made me, it did make me feel like had a fight in me, I can't lie. And that is, like, if cinema can do anything, like it can do that, but you're right, you could exit the cinema and you could just pick one thing to talk about, you could be like, okay, women in the resistance. And I think

it's interesting, because how often do you see that maternal abandonment and for it not to be as clear cut as she's sort of sinister and evil? No, she really is just, she's a complex character, but she really is just, has committed herself to something prior to being a mother. She's committed herself to the cause. And, you know, it's so interesting to watch these domestic fights play out with two revolutionaries who've just had a baby. And she's talking about, but I don't feel seen by him. I don't feel loved. And it's so interesting to have that conversation. And then she's like, and now I'm going to take my gun to the bank. And now I'm in this like violent car chase. And now I'm making these kind of incredibly huge moral decisions.

I'm like under the thumb of this arm of the government that is so ruthless, so relentless. But also she is thinking about like, I've had a baby and I'm being taken for granted. It's so, it's like these things actually never leave you. And I do think that was a very, it just felt the first time I had seen that. She just like stands out. Also, Gabrielle Union's character does so much with, you know, not a lot given, the female characters of this, one being a 16 year old girl, Chase Infinity or Infinity Chase. Chase Infinity. Chase Infinity. She's 25 year old playing a teenager. I think this is her film debut, utterly stunning in this. And I think even just the female characters, this is a film, like all the promotional posters. It's big Leonardo DiCaprio face, Sean Penn,

Benicio del Toro, like absolute heavyweights, but I think the female characters in this do so much with what they are given. And I just found that really striking. And I think you could actually just talk about that for 25 minutes with your friend exiting the cinema. I will say Benicio del Toro's character, who he's like, I think he's the sensei where Willa, the daughter, goes to train. He is a part of like a different arm of the resistance. And I, I saw a tweet pointing out that he has this refrain to sort of calm down. He and Leonardo DiCaprio's character working together that sort of one seeks help with the other. He has this. refrain where he goes like ocean waves, ocean waves to like ground himself and others. And I

saw a tweet being like, it kind of means the same thing as one battle after another. It like speaks to that same relentlessness, that one thing on and on. But it is just like a different way of framing it. They are very different activists, very different community members. One's this radical bomber and like a violent disruptor. And then the other is like a problem solver who's like has this safe house. It does a very good job of laying out like there are many, many ways to make a difference. There are many ways to do this. But also they're both just like very fucking cool. versus the Christmas adventurers who, I think this film, what it does very effectively is make it obvious. It makes them clear in their role as like little guy, like not little guy in terms of like the heft and legitimate, quite unquote, legitimate powers that they have.

Like they have access to so much like military heft and money. But they are like essentially four or five ugly men in a room with like foot soldiers. Whereas the rest of us like there's like the civilian arm and you see so many other faces on quote unquote the other side of it. I think that was so effective. I mean, Sean Penn's acting as well was just actually impeccable to a point where I couldn't quite, I couldn't remember who it was. I was like, what is his name? This guy. He was so good. And yeah, the interplay between kind of the French 75 and Benicio Del Toro's kind of more grassroots community-based activism and the respect that he has for him. I mean, it's just even that, those two characters,

the way that their relationship plays out is so beautiful. It's just a film of so much depth. And yeah, I think you all need to go and see this. I think it's my movie of the year. I'm going to go back to cinema and watch it, which I never ever do. Like, I will watch this when the minute it's out, but I will go to cinema and see this again, if possible. Justine Chang, for the New Yorker, concludes, and I think this just, if this doesn't sell it, I don't know what well. The times have seldom been more hostile towards political myth-making as nervy as this, or blockbuster intelligence of this scale. Anneson's timeliness is undeniable, but timeliness alone has never been an argument for greatness. One battle after another, as great an American movie as I've seen this year, doesn't simply meet the moment, with extraordinary tenderness, fury,

and imagination, it forges a moment all its own and insists that better ones could still lie ahead. In late August, the Global Samud Flotilla, the GSF, sets her from Barcelona towards Gaza, with the aim of breaking the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and delivering aid to Palestinians. At the beginning of October, and for the second time this year, 22-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg was aboard an aid vessel among a flotilla that was intercepted and she was detained in Israel along with other crew members. This Monday, Greta and many others who had been aboard various boats on the flotilla that had been intercepted reached Athens following their detention in and then expulsion from

Israel. During her detainment, an email was sent by the Swedish foreign ministry to those close to Tunberg said an official who had visited her in prison reported that she said she was in a cell infested with bedbugs, was not being given enough food or water, was dehydrated, had developed rashes and had been harshly treated. Another detainee reportedly told another embassy that they'd seen Gretta being forced to hold flags while photos were taken. This has been corroborated by two other members of the Fotilla. Allegations two of her being dragged by her hair, beaten, forced to kiss the Israeli flag, have been made. Israel's foreign minister released a statement saying that all

participants legal rights were upheld and a spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry rejected the above allegations as lies. Upon arriving in Athens, Greta had this to say, quote, let me be very clear, there is a genocide going on. Our international systems are betraying Palestinians. They are not even able to prevent the worst war crimes from happening. And the three of us have been watching the progress of the Fletla via the GSF's website and I awake very late Tuesday evening UK time very early Wednesday saw that one boat, the Madeline, which had the Irish author Nisha Dolan aboard, was still sailing then and getting closer. The following morning, however, a pre-recorded message from Nisha on her Instagram page confirmed that she had been intercepted

and detained by Israel. This is still a fast-moving story. A lot is changing and there may be more information and updates between recording this today and when the episode goes out. So apologies if it isn't all totally up to date, but at present the instruction is where possible, to contact the Irish government and the governments of the other detainees to demand their immediate release. And something that I really want to discuss is Greta Thunberg at the centre of this. She is an incredibly young woman who already has this career spanning multiple years. She's had public online standoffs with world leaders, with hate figures, with TV pundits, journalists, has taken part in so much of the public outcry and the action to send aid to the Palestinians

and to speak out against genocide. And yet the framing of her remains, as this brat, this like ill-informed, naive, a force against good, a troublemaker. And this might be too lofty a question to try and enter the discussion. But what the fuck is happening? I think where we can see a person's actions, we can hear their words, we can hear them talk about justice and safety and basically an end to dying and a protection of planet Earth, where we all live. And then side by side, see reports essentially calling them the badness, the evilness, the terribleness. Like, what is it play for that to become the accepted reality when it just seems very obvious that it is the other. I don't know. I'm, I guess in my media bubble, I see so much praise for her.

But the minute I step out of that, it is all like hell and horror, complete, it feels like slander. It feels absolutely insane. No, it's really quite like you feel like you're being gaslit when you see those tweets of people being like, look at these guys coming back thinking they're the good guys. And it's like they're literally still wearing the outfits that Israel put them in when they were detained. they have literally been on a boat just trying to deliver baby formula and aid to Gaza where people are being systematically killed and flattened. I think when it comes to Greta Thunberg, I can't think of a more inspirational figure in our lifetimes and we've just watched her carry on get stronger, more intelligent,

more defined in her fight and to watch her, I actually feel quite, this is a really lofty thing to say as well, but I feel quite honoured to be alive at the same time as her because she is so impressive and she's so sensical. Everything she does makes entire sense, the way that she's able to put things together and put things into perspective and explain the importance of why a war on Gaza for anyone who's interested in climate change

is also even cutting it from that angle, the amount of energy used for all of the bombing and the ammunition. And it really puts into perspective just how many people aren't as brave as her. And so it's also really interesting when you see this backlash being like, she comes from a really privileged family and this is all she's doing and it's like you could not see or find a better use of privilege. Also to note that anyone going on

those flotillas will know that there is a potential that they will die on this mission. That is not an impossibility. So going across to Gaza is an immense act of bravery, self-sacrifice. But as she constantly, as it pains to say, she doesn't even really talk about what she experienced at the hands of the Israeli government. Other people have kind of said in more clear terms, happened to them, but she immediately refrains back to saying, we are not heroes, this story is not about us. This is about what is happening on the ground in Gaza. And she is an activist in a true sense in a way that I find just so powerful.

And she also does, it's so fascinating to see how much power she does have. That is why all of these often quite insecure men want to bring her down. I mean, Donald Trump is constantly fighting with her. Her responses to him are always just so incredible. I mean, I don't know she's, I'm just, I'm actually like speechless just for how in awe of her, I am and it shows the level of credibility she has and the power that she has to draw attention to these stories from right back at the beginning when she was a school girl taking time of school with that little placard that she had the way that she has an ability to roll people up

because she is this quite small diminutive even though she's in her 20s now she still looks very much like a young girl and seemingly nothing offends certain men more than this woman who doesn't fit into the ideal of what they're expecting her to do who is not you know ready to be weakened she had an incredible t-shirt on I can't remember what said, but it was something to do with being autistic and everyone was tweeting it, like, what is she trying to say with this t-shirt, this ridiculous? And everyone was retweeting it, being like, she's just trying to say that she's fucking cool, actually. And she is an icon. Like, we want to talk about icons. Grutter Tundberg is a fucking icon.

And in so many ways, she is essentially like what governments have been saying, like, if you want to protest, if you want to be an activist, this is the way to do it. Be nonviolent, use your voice. I think it is just that her voice is too loud. It's very intellectually dishonest to say, you know, she is not taking any personal risk. I mean, by kind of of nature of the eyes of the world, social media. We are looking at this rotilla, but I was reading about kind of the history of this kind of action, and six billion ships of the Gaza Freedom Plotilla were raided in 2010 in international waters, and nine of the flotilla passengers were killed, 30 were wounded. The exact sequence of events

I'm reading was contested, but 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded. Photographic evidence was confiscated by the IDF, so it's a really dangerous thing. As much as people want to be like, well, it's just because she's just gone on a joy ride for her own personal gain. Like, it's a very dangerous thing, a thing that you would think very hard on. It is kind of the, it's the action part of the activism. A lot of us are completely stymied, completely frozen of like, what can I do? I can hit share. I can send money. This is it. This is direct action. And it is incredibly brave. I think no matter who you are, no matter where you sit, this is someone who saw a problem, there is no aid. I will deliver the aid myself. And I just think to be 22 and against all odds, against

literal presidents of state, calling you a brat, calling you a child. She gets a lot of stick for being like a public figure, as though she was like, brilliant, I want to be a celebrity. People are so quick to buy the line that she is this kind of fame-hungry, attention-seeking disruptor when she is just trying to feed starving people. And also, like, she has to be a public figure for this work, a kind of pseudo-celebrity for this to work. There are activists and organizers doing their best work out of the spotlight. And then there are those doing their good work in the spotlight. And I think a very, very young woman, formerly a child who was doing this, is probably not going to be much use organizing aid routes or policy amendments or like on the legal team. But an outspoken

and clear-eyed child and then young women standing for the future of own generation can make a difference. And I think what use is a figurehead and a face if no one is looking at that face, if that face isn't seen? And I think I find it really banal and really exhausting to see people that accuse her of doing this to kind of further her career. And it's like, well, yeah, of course. The furthering of her career and like the gaining of eyes and fans momentum allows her to do something and it's not the same as a power-hungry corporate shilt gunning for a promotion because they want it for vanity sake or for the money. I think it does give her more personal power, but it also puts her so far under the spotlight, under the microscope. I really fear for her

because she is a figure of so much hope. And historically, we've seen what people do to those and the outcome of that. It makes me really frustrated to see people so easily manipulated and not be like, okay, propaganda is being deployed and I'm falling for it. Like it really pains me, I think. But every tweet, everything you said. And also I just think what I find so incredibly strong about her is she's completely coherent and full of facts in her argument. And you just can't argue with her, which is why people have to find other ways to belittle and try and dehumanize her and create a monster out of her. Because she is, she's so intelligent and she's so streamlined with everything. She said, everything is so fensical. And also she's acting on the work that she says, you know, she's not paying lip servers to anything. And as you said, it's an incredibly dangerous position to put herself in. She is out on the front lines. She is. being filmed by virtue of the fact that that is part of the fight. And I mean, I guess it's quite an interesting conversation to have after speaking about one battle after another because it is, you know, all of these cogs in a system that work towards making change. And she's very much at the forefront. And she is a figure had that she's entirely disruptive, but totally

peaceful. She is seemingly unwavering in the face of people trying to tear her down, including President Trump. Her clapbacks are just amazing. And she seems impervious to that because she seems to she doesn't suffer fools glad you know she's not willing to take cheap shots because she doesn't care because that isn't her fight it's not about her image it's not about what people think about her she has a message to deliver and she has action to take and she's going to do that irrespective of how people frame her or judge her and i just think that that is incredible and i guess it sort speaks to what we talked about in our taylor swift episode earlier this week it is very frustrating for people with that power built in that audience built in to say and do nothing that when someone comes

along and at great personal cost, make sure that message is heard. And then to criticize that person and to put that person under way more scrutiny than a much older person, someone who is very famous and risks nothing by saying something and still doesn't say something, it feels like I've just like step through the looking glass a little bit. I'm sure a lot of people feel like that. And it has been interesting actually that this hasn't been covered. It is you have to kind of go searching for it. It feels like background noise, whereas it's actually just like a huge momentous thing. This is newsworthy. And yet I've seen it nowhere. And you do have to just like look on social media. It's been really interesting to me actually to kind of

retrain my mind of like where to go for updates, where to go to kind of to see the scale of something. There are several people who I'd followed prior to this, Nisha Dolling included, but a few other journalists who were on different flotilla vessels. And I think extraordinary to see them sort of pivot, use their journalistic power in that way to cut through like misreporting on this. So I saw before their detainment, Nisha and the other she was traveling with these high profile reports came out of Israel claiming that the boats were like party boats. There was no aid on board. And so they'd open their camera, made video evidence. They said, this is a lie, this is propaganda. Here is video evidence showing what we have. Here's the formula. Here are the medical supplies.

And I just, I think that is, like, you know, and they are doing something. They're in international waters. They are acting in accordance with international laws. And they're nonviolent. They are speaking their message via the channels that are available to them. And I do think it is time to just pivot away and not expect that the BBC will cover this with, you know, front page news. You do just have to go to the source. And I, yeah, I just, I'm kind of awed by the entire thing. On Monday 6th of October in New York City, Benifer reunited to promote their movie Kiss of the Spider-Woman. It was the first time they've appeared in public together since their marriage fell apart and ended in divorce. And I'll give you a brief timeline of Benefer, even though I know we have discussed it before.

So they met on the set of a film in 2002. We're engaged later that year, then broke up. in 2004. They got back together in 2021, engaged and then married in 2022, and then Jalo filed for divorce in 2024, citing irreconcilable differences. And the divorce was finalised only earlier this year in January. As it stands, it doesn't seem likely that they're necessarily officially getting back together. But as many users of X pointed out, there are some people that if you get within a short enough distance to, you are going to want to have sex with them. And it was very sexy whatever they were up to on the red carpet. I'm so fascinated by them. And also by that break up and get back together again either time and time again or with a big gap in the

middle and then it ends up being quite successful. And Beth, I know you recently wrote a great piece for dazed on this subject. It was so good. We'll link it in the show notes for anyone that wants to read it about those couples that do manage to go from being exes to lovers again. But what do you make of this benefit for reconciliation? Why is it so sexy? It just feels like it's going against all the rules. It's like every time they break up, we just see them being kutzy together. I'm personally obsessed. I feel like the longer it goes on, the sexier it gets. What are your takes? I agree. I really feel that Benefer is just bigger than, it's bigger. It's a force of nature. It is bigger than divorce. It is like an art piece, a performance.

It's a truth. Like they cannot at this point piss me off by doing this. I find it fascinating. I think they truly must not care what anyone thinks to kind of break up, get back together. Now they're on good terms. Now he's slamming the car door. They're arguing in public. But actually, They're on the red carpet together. He's singing her praises. He's financing her film. He's, he's, that man is so sprung, but in a way that is like, he does not have to be married to or dating this woman. He will love her forever. He just obviously doesn't care. It made me think of like, there's this kind of meme of a guy being like, many versions of this, but being like, if you see me cornered at a party, being shouted at by a gorgeous tiny woman, do not intervene.

I'm exactly where I want to be. I think Ben Affleck is basically, if you see me in a confusing, pseudo-romantic relationship with an actress called Jen. Do not intervene. I'm happy. I'm home. I'm where I want to be. Like this man, he loves a cinema. He loves Matt Damon. He loves to pinball between his gens. If he's found something that makes him happy, it's a hard world. I think we just have to let him do this forever. They seem actually to be having fun. I agree. And there was an amazing interview as well with Jennifer Lopez recently where she was like, look, how many years in the public eye, I spent years and years of people speculating. I've just decided I like who I am. I work hard. I know what's true so anyone else can say whatever they want. And I'm sure that that partly relates to Ben. But I think also the reason it is so endearing is there are those people in your life that you can't be with, but you also can't not help but find them so attractive. And you can see they're just like have this like sizzling chemistry. And it is also that toxic thing. And I'm sure everyone's had this for someone where it's like it does not work if you try to shape it into a relationship. But the minute that that relationship bubble is relieved, you're both just absolutely attracted to each other in a way that feels.

like uncontrollable and there was so many takes on Twitter from people being like they just need to fuck and just not be together this is clearly they keep the like the like the sex is so good they keep trying to get married and it's like no you guys aren't built to be married to each other you just need to be having sex with no strings attached that is all that this is yeah I basically want no one at home to try and recreate this my advice is typically you have to think long and hard about getting back with your axe and if you've done it like 65 times maybe not if neither of you are interested in changing which I feel like is probably true they are probably who they are happy with who they are. They're not going to change enough to be able to be

successfully married. But they could just do this. So anyone listening at home, this is not an invitation to call your ex unless you've really thought long and hard about it because you are not Ben and Jen. But whatever they're doing, I am obsessed with it. And I actually, in a lot of cases, like they're not Courtney Carlashian and Scott Dissick. They are not Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth. They are a secret third thing, which I will not get frustrated with. He thinks she hung the moon. And I think with that kind of belief, like you can go so far, they're gazing each other on the red carpet. Second to this, I will watch the film. I'm very excited. She's getting Oscar buzz for this. I don't know how seriously to take that. But like, she is actually a

fantastic performer. He sees her through all the razies and through all the kind of like nonsense that she does. And it's like, now, she's fucking amazing. She's a brilliant performer. Yes, she does a million shitty projects. But then she'll do like five like hustlers level films. And you're like, God, she's actually a legend. So I think we all need to see love in the world, sometimes through a pair of back like eyes. And if you are considering getting back with an ex, I do think you need to go and read Beth's Day's piece because she makes some very salient points. And I do think

I love those stories. I have heard them like a family friend of a friend. This woman was telling me how like her and her boyfriend were together for years, she moved away, came back five years later and they've now been happily married for 40 years. Reconciliation can happen, but as Beth makes a really good point, not like in the immediate aftermath because everyone wants to go out of their ex

a couple of days after you've broken up. That is just some fucking hormonal thing. Do not listen to that. Thank you so much for listening this week. Quick reminder that we're on Instagram and TikTok at Everything is Content Pod with extra behind the scenes content and ways for you to get involved in the podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode or any episode ever, please do leave us a rating and a lovely five-star review on your podcast player app.

It means the world. See you next week. Bye! Thank you.