Everything Is Content - The Beckhams, Grief Porn & 2016

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

Hey EICapulets! To Brooklyn, or to Beckham? That is this week's question.There was simply no way of doing this episode without discussing the biggest news of the week, which is a pretty big statement, all things considered. On Monday evening, Brooklyn Beckham took to his Instagram and posted a series of stories stating that he does not want to reconcile with his family. This comes after years of speculation about a rift between the Beckhams and Brooklyn and Nicola, a lot of which started after their 2022 wedding.We discuss how and why this has taken the internet by storm, and what we make of it all.Next up! Chloe Zhao's Hamnet is based on Maggie O'Farrell's novel of the same name. The fictional story follows Agnes Hathaway (played by Jessie Buckley) and William Shakespeare (played by Paul Mescal) as they lose their son Hamnet to the plague- and how this tragedy births the play Hamlet. Very little is known about Shakespeare’s life, so this story has been compared to fan-fiction. But just a lil fact check: several other plays, including two comedies, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It came between the death of Hamnet and the creation of Hamlet, according to The New Yorker.Since the film’s release there’s been a lot of claims it's "grief porn". We get into it.And lastly, whoever is doing 2016’s marketing needs a raise, after a nostalgia-based trend caused what feels like the entire internet to look back a decade to the days of Pokemon Go, Brexit, Beyonce’s Lemonade, Trump 1.0, Kylie lip kits and chokers to name but a few big moments and trends. For those of us who were old enough to own phones and participate in the culture and social media back then, throwbacks are aplenty. For those who missed it the first time around, FOMO is in full force. Harper’s Bazaar has called 2016 the “last good year”, and Glamour suggested it might be the last time we felt “hopeful”. According to TikTok, searches for 2016 surged by 454% in the first week of the new year and about 229 million posts have been made using their 2016 filter. But why?We hope you enjoy, as always please do rate, review & subscribe!Thank you to Cue for the edit.Beth's been loving: The Silence Of The Lambs (the book), Emily In Paris. Ruchira's been loving Stranger Things and Dying For Sex & Oenone's been loving A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, The Night ManagerBrooklyn Beckham's statement Ignore the awards – Hamnet is artificial and manipulative Shakespeare fan fiction"HAMNET" FEELSELEMENTAL, BUT IS IT JUST HIGHLY EFFECTIVE GRIEF PORN?Maybe You’ll Hate This MovieWas 2016 The Last Good Year? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Beth. I'm Racheira. And I'm Anoni. And this is Everything is Content, the podcast that dives into the murky depth of pop culture and current affairs so that you don't have to. Whether it's high fashion faux pas, Oscar winning performances or social media trends, we've got you covered. With the business casual outfits inexplicably taking over the club of content.

This week on the podcast, we're talking about the Shakespeare-inspired film that's birthed a million think pieces, why we're also obsessed with 2016 and Brooklyn Beckham's explosive Instagram stories. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Everything is ContentPod and make sure you hit follow on your podcast players so you never miss an episode. Before I asked you both what you've been loving,

I just wanted to quickly flag for listeners. I'm really sorry if my sound is a bit weird. I left my laptop somewhere and I'm recording from my phone. So if I sound a bit dodgy, that is why. But anyway, back to housekeeping. Beth and Retira. Let's start with you, Be. What have you been loving this week?

So I need to make brief mention to having finally watched Emily in Paris, and I agree with you both. I've also finally been able to listen to the podcast where I muted you both because you were talking about this when I was on the podcast. Oh my gosh. It is one very long advert. Some of the most hideous outfits and some of the worst dialogue committed to screen, I love it.

It's KVC and I need a million serious. It feels like half it was written by people, half of it was written by the wits. of AI. I actually think it's not AI. I think it is that brilliant bit of writing where you're like, there is a reference to, I think it's the X-Files. Mindy says the X-Files don't open them or something. I'm like, what an up-to-date reference. I adore this show. So I have finally read the ancient scrolls of Emily and Paris, and I love it so much. Second is a book which I picked up while away for a fun long birthday weekend for my younger brother. And I needed something to read in between like that glasses of wine and going in the hot tub. So I am.

rereading The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harrison. Whenever I read that, I have to say in my head, The Silent of the Lamb from Selling Sunset. You know the reference? I mean, I think it's not DeVina. No. It's just a silent office and she goes, is her name Maya? Maybe Maya, who everyone at university loved and then she left the show a few series ago and she just looks around the quiet office and goes, The Silent of the Lamb. And everyone's like, so I'm rereading the Silent of the Lamb. I'm ashamed you've watched it Not the sending son's at the film Watched never read

I now you've said it I don't know why I've never read it I think I would love that book How does it compare to the film? I think it's in some ways it's better So it's actually it's a sequel to Red Dragon Which is also a film that they made But I think they made Science for Lambs first

I think the film's fantastic I think the book might be even better As crime novels go It's very it's timeless It's fantastic It does a lot of interesting things So for anyone who hasn't seen Slash watched it, it's set in the early 80s and it follows a young FBI trainee called Clarice Starling who was sent to ask some probing questions to a notoriously slippery serial killer and cannibal, who is the, I think he's a forensic psychiatrist in a former life who was also occasionally eating his patients, who is currently serving nine consecutive life sentences for eating his patients because you're not allowed to do that. And the FBI basically wanted to use him in his mind to solve a current. serial killer case. They send Clarice, this young woman as a bit of a porn. She's also incredibly

talented, underestimated because she's a woman. And it's about this growing, strange, I don't want to call it a friendship between young Clarice Starling and this spooky, man he eats people. And it's just very good. It's just very, like, it gets into the mind of everyone. And I, I am a bit of a fan of serial killer novels. I can't bear true crime, but I think there's something in me that does quite enjoy fake crime. You do love horror. I don't, I haven't. picked up like a horror book in ages and maybe I knew to. I do quickly just want to go back to Emily and Paris because yes, Mindy gets the really the short end of the stick on all sides with her fashion and her dialogue. But I do think for Emily and Paris in that universe, it's actually

some of the best dialogue and the best outfits. I just want to fight you on that. You will, you will die on this hill. I will die. The last day on earth will be you on this hill. And I feel validated. Like two people did DM me in agreement. So do we think this as in best as in it's better than anything that's come before it or it's just it's good, It's better in the Emily and Paris canon than it has been, I think. But what outfits do you think were awful? Did you not like Emily's outfits? Emily's I thought were really nice.

I quite enjoyed Emily's. I just think Mindy's outfits were horrifying. She looks like what I used to put my Betty Spaghetti's in. Like just the most atrocious tribe. I actually think it's mean. And then every now and then they'll put her in a really nice thing and do her hair and makeup nice thing. You think, poor thing. You could have been doing this her whole season.

Also, they always give her covers. which are just like really cringy covers. And she has an amazing voice and it's like, why are you putting this amazing, talented woman through all of this? I thought maybe she wanted all of this. I thought maybe she was like, no, I need to sing. I've got to sing twice an episode and also I need to be wearing this Barbie dream outfit. But also her singing is so weird because she back, lip syncs very bad.

She's obviously such a good singer. But then they do something weird to it where it sounds like she's not singing anyway. So I don't know why they bother. Oh, yeah. Anyway, we can put Emily and Paris to bed now if everyone is. I'm going to say, I can't go back into it. Richard, what have you been loving this gig? Okay, so I have an update for you. I did finally watch the final hour of the Stranger Things finale and it's so annoying I have to come back and do a mere

culprit because it was really bad. And now I get why people were really annoyed. It wasn't satisfying. It just was quite cringy and quite, just quite like in your face, sentimental. Or it felt like a hash job to get everyone's stories wrapped up, but it didn't, it didn't feel like, ah, this feels like a good resolution. So yeah, it's really annoying. I feel like, I feel like, I feel everything I said was wrong. So there's that. The other thing was, I actually finally watched Dying for Sex after your recommendation. I've been putting it off for ages. And I think it's because I thought it would be really sad. And it wasn't sad. It was so joyful. It was so funny. Michelle Williams is insanely good in it. And I think she deserves all the awards for that series

and everyone who created it. And also, who's the name of the actress who plays her friend again, Beth? Jenny Slate. Currently in the news for coming out against Justin Baldoni. So I'll let the listeners, Google that because it continues to be dramatic. But yes, Jenny Slate, one of my faves in the universe. So good. So, so good in it. And their friendship just really, really moved me. It's so beautiful. So amazing. This idea of who would you pick in your life to see you right to the end if you had the choice? And what would that look like? What kind of relationship would that make you both have? And what does that mean for the person who continues to live? Just completely life-changing, amazing storytelling. So, so good. You have to watch it and only. Yeah, you reminded me,

I haven't. I also was picking it off and I don't know why. Maybe sit for the same reasons as you. I should definitely get on that. Yeah, you have to. What have you been loving? Well, honestly, I felt like this was made for me, because I didn't know this was happening. As you all know, I recently completed Game of Thrones. And now there is a new prequel that's out called A Night of the Seven Kingdoms,

which came out on like the 18th of January. Isle that? Is it written by George R.R. Martin alongside Ira Parker. I have to say the first episode was quite shit, which was annoying, because I've literally just watched Game, and I was like so pleased because I did miss that whole universe. I did think it was that amazing, but I am going to stick with it. I did think it was interesting that before the first episode even premiered, they green-inized it for a second season.

And I was like, that is so frustrating because there's so many good shows that I really want to get a second season that doesn't always happen. But I am going to stick with it. The guy who's amazing in it, Daniel Ings. Do you remember him from The Gentleman that's like the brother that's really loose? Daniel Ings, yeah, I recognize him. He was also in, oh, it used to be called Skrotal Recall. But you know the one where the guy has Comedia and he's going around and telling all, he plays the best friend in that. Yes.

He's really funny. Okay, anyways, he's in it. He's great. the main guy, Peter Caffrey, what was taking me out of it was initially I thought he was trying to do a northern accent. Then I was like, oh, it's West Country. And then he was just Irish. So I was like, what is happening here? And then I read an interviewer, he was like, we just decided to keep my Irish accent for like to make it easier for pacing and continuity. But I think right at the beginning, perhaps he was trying to do a different accent. So I don't really know if this is what I've been loving. But it's something. It's something. It's what you've been absorbing. There has been more, but I really just can't remember. Yeah, I swear we've talked about more. I would be so pissed off if I was a, like an OG fan. of the Game of Thrones books because he's never going to finish them.

George R. Martin is just, he's basically just not ever going to finish that series. We've been waiting for these final two books and he's like, maybe I will, maybe I won't. Oh, here's another TV show. I'd be so annoyed if I was going prequel after prequel. And I just did not have this final book. This potentially could be made up, but I did see someone talking about George R.R. Martin talking to Stephen King being like, Stephen Had you finished so many books and Stephen's like why I just sit down and write them.

Also, cocaine was quite a big one for Stephen King back in the day. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, huge cocaine guy. But I don't think he's been on the cocaine for ages. I mean, I'm definitely more of a George R. Martin when it comes to sort of my, the amount of time it takes me to get things done. There's two camps when it comes to creatives, and it's those two. It's so true.

Inside you, there are two wolves. So, were you not intrigued by House of Dragon compared to this one? Because I really want somebody to watch House of Dragon to let me know if I should continue with it, because the first series was excellent, and I never returned back. Oh, was it good? Okay, so I had seen people saying that it was kind of shit, so I didn't bother with that. And then I saw, I looked this up. It's got really good rotter tomatoes, whatever the other things are.

And I was like, great. And then I don't know if it's so I wasn't really concentrating. And it is the first episode and there's a lot going on. I mean, it did take me about 10 years to finally get through the first episode of Game and Throne. So it could just be another one of those. Maybe I should do House of the Dragon. I thought the general consensus was that wasn't good. But I trust your judgment more than wherever I got that from.

I think the actors are just really good because that introduced us to Emma Darcy, who we know is amazing. And they're famed, obviously, for Nogroni Spagliato. And also Millie Alcock, who is brilliant and we saw in Sirens. I think it's quite a good female heavy drama. So that's why I remember about it. But maybe it is shit. I can't remember. There is one other thing I've remembered of watching, which is The Night Manager, which still

not as good as a first series, but something happens in episode three, I think, which makes it much more exciting than it had been prior. So I would give that a go if you haven't gone to that yet, but do watch the far series first. There was simply no way of doing this episode without discussing the biggest news of the week, which is quite a big statement considering everything that is going on in the world. On Monday evening, Brooklyn Beckham took to his Instagram and posted a series of stories stating that he does not want to reconcile with his family.

This comes after years of speculation about a riff between the Beckham's and Brooklyn and Nicola, a lot of which started after their 2022 wedding. So we won't read the whole statement, but Brooklyn basically alleged that his parents, David and Victoria Beckham repeatedly interfered with his relationship with Nicola. one of the main things, including that Victoria cancelled making Nicola's wedding dress last minute, that she invited his ex-girlfriends to family events or women that made them uncomfortable. And he also claimed that his parents prioritised their brand over family, that they pressured him to sign away the rights to his name,

and they controlled him for much of his life, which caused him anxiety, and that he felt like he had to make this statement, because they continued to go to the press, leaving him with no choice but to tell the truth about only some of the lies, that have been printed. You can read the Phil's statement every online if you haven't yet already. There are a few bits that I'm sure we'll get into that I haven't mentioned yet. But the internet has absolutely grown up. There are memes, think pieces, team Beckham, team Brooklyn. People are digging up videos from events, Catwalks with Nicola kind of like making evils of

Victoria. They're bringing up videos of Victoria dancing. For contacts, we will go into that bit later. They're making AI videos and saying stuff like looking for a Brooklyn, Beckham kind of loyal and also on Brooklyn statement saying things like, 2026 is not the year to advertise you're this rich and out of touch. And I actually did a poll just for market research on Instagram out of interest. And it was 54% of people were Team Beckham with the rest, Team Brooklyn and Nicola. And Bella Mackey wrote a substack titled Brooklyn Beckham exposed the narrative. She writes,

The idea that Victoria might be a bad mother made me feel fleetingly sad yesterday, as if I expect her to abide by some higher standard because she's famous and I've known who she is for most of life. In reality, if I knew the Beckham's personally, I probably wouldn't like them much. David's alleged emails calling the honours committee a bunch of cunts after he was apparently passed over for a knighthood, accepting a supposed 150 million payday from Qatar, despite its human rights records, doing that cynical queuing to see the dead queen. What a move. And Victoria is mates with some people who I've shamefully deep dived for no reason and deemed not nice people. But she goes on to say that sometimes gossip about people you don't really know feels like a victimless

crime. And I think that's the thing that I'm finding the most interested is I am deeply impacted by this. I kind of like desperately don't want it to be true that Victoria and David aren't good parents specifically because of their documentaries that came out recently and I'd started to really enjoy them both as a couple. And it's made me feel conflicted in a way that no celebrity information should make a person feel. But along with the memes are people taking it quite seriously, talking about how serious estrangement is, talking about the fact that he wouldn't have done this statement if there wasn't truth to it. I want to know, do you guys have a Amp, did you instinctively immediately come away from this being like, I feel this way? And why are we so

obsessed with this family? Do you think it should be this newsworthy? Because in the context of everything that's going on in the world, it's quite wild, how big this news is. I am finding the whole thing. Like, it's just so tinged with sadness, even though I know none of the people involved, it's just, it's estrangement. So even if it's a very happy event for him, it's long time coming and it's the right decision, you don't get to that point unless it's really, things have been really, really bad. So I was finding, I think because I was remembering, like I remember when Brooklyn Beckin was born. Not, I wasn't there, but I remember suddenly there was this like Posh and Beck's baby being trotted out at the football with Bex, like walking around being papped. And I guess in that way, it's why it feels personal because I'm like, but I recognize that baby.

I've seen this baby become a child, become a teenage, become an adult. Then it kind of makes a bit more sense. I'm like, oh, wait, the overexposure thing, check, check, check, tick, tick. I have literally seen in magazine shoes. I have seen every angle of this kid's life, like packaged for Brand Becken. And I think that would give me massive anxiety. And he talks about in the piece, like, he's like, I had anxiety for like all of my life because of this. And it's like, it does feel like we're reaching that era where one, the first children of family vloggers are coming out and saying, I was exploited.

This is my side of the story. I'm realizing what happened. It wasn't good. I was part of this insane machine. And it feels like slightly different version, but kind of the same, like a different head of the same. beast, the children of mega famous celebrities who are made de facto into celebrities themselves. Like, we literally know that the children's names, I think it was like they were named after where they were conceived.

Insane thing for me to know about a baby that's just been born. So I am finding it quite sad at the same time as some of the memes are making me laugh quite a lot. So I feel guilty. Yeah, the memes have been really, really good. I have literally spluttered out my drink a few times and that really happens. I was speaking to somebody about this yesterday and I think I totally could. get why people would look at this scenario and think the country's gone mad, the world has gone

mad, why does this even matter? It's just a family. But I'm going to try and put forward my argument, which is, I think we have generational trauma from the royal family and Megxit, and this idea of family units breaking up after the new generation marries off, and the sun just spills all. And I think it really divides people, because we've spoken about family estrangement before, but there's loads of different sides to it, but it seems to really, really rile people up this idea of breaking up a family versus the new generations, well, if a family is toxic, you have to stand up for yourself and you have to put your boundaries down and speak out. So I think there's that kind of button within the UK that's really heavily shoved down with a story like this. And I think there are

parallels between Harry and Brooklyn doing this and also with the idea of a new family that they're creating and kind of the telling all of secrets. I also think some of the details he said are absolutely crazy. This allusion to the fact that inauthentic relationships he's been exposed to from when he was younger, there's already that kind of rumor about David and Victoria's marriage being all spoken mirrors. And it is just this horrible rumor that they put to bed quite amazingly in their documentary because they seem to have the most loving relationship. Obviously, those documentaries were made by them. So I think him also kind of giving away to these details that seem to endorse the worst rumors about them is just so crazy. And it has just made all of us kind of

lose our heads a bit. I think there's that. I think also the dancing on him at the wedding. It's just meme fodder. I'm sorry. Obviously that is a really crazy detail. Some of the memes I've seen, you know, Jubei diary of a school girl, where she's like literally like twirking on the floor in front of this boy. I've seen people saying Victoria at Brooklyn's wedding and I was dying. So I'm sorry, this is a very, this is a really sad scenario. This is really crazy. It's really salacious. But there's also enough details that just kind of make the internet go mad. That's my theory. Yeah. So, frustrating me, I think that line about Victoria dancing the wedding kind of fucked up the whole thing because I fully trust and believe in the truth of

his statement and I also believe that each child has a really different experience of their parents and he's the oldest and it stands to reason that potentially his experience of growing up in that environment differs from his brothers and his sister and that they don't feel the same way because parents can treat each child or their experiences can be very different and I can imagine being the child of an extremely famous family how suffocating that must have been he's constantly getting shut on, yes, he's very bad at every job he tries to do, but imagine not being able to be bad at the start because you're immediately being broadcast trying something new to a million people. Like it is actually a gilded cage and yes, it's really privileged people problems.

But I totally believe that growing up in that family has caused him like unimaginable angst and anxiety and stress. The thing I do kind of, to put my like conspiracy hat on, I do kind of believe that maybe the line about Victoria dancing inappropriately on him could have been influenced by Nicola or someone because people pointed out and I do think this is true that I don't think you would say that maybe you would. It just feels like not something you would say about your mum because I don't know if your brain would go there and that's just me conspiring. But basically the reason I think it's like a bit of a stressful note is when Spear came out from Harry, I think there were some memes but mostly everyone was aghast. Everyone was like, this is mad. I can't believe we're finally getting the truth.

And then admittedly, everyone kind of forgot and no one really cares anymore because it felt like such a big seismic thing for him to release this book. And there's so many parallels between Spare and Brooklyn statement. Except Brooklyn's statement for a second everyone went, I cannot tell you, every single one of my friends having those screenshots, my sister, my friends, everyone. Everyone was talking about it. And then within minute, it's everyone taking the piss. And yes, there are people taking it very seriously. It's actually really serious accusation. And I feel now actually quite sorry for him that he's put his head above the parapet. And he is always seen as a joke, even in this moment where he's doing something which goes against, he's going against, like the

biggest family in the UK. Like people have so much power, press power as he talks about. And unfortunately just no one takes him seriously and I think that he probably maybe feels that when his family like maybe he's the one that's the most emotionally vulnerable maybe he does struggle more than his siblings with certain things and maybe his family like we know that victoria's extremely headstrong she's very business driven David and Victoria maybe have generationally different outlooks on life maybe they don't understand when bookland says to them like I don't like this because they're like well that's just how we do stuff there's so many ways you can chop it up but what I just feel sorry for him is unfortunately instead of this clearing the air and the way that he perhaps expected and I'm sure he is getting lots of lovely messages as for. The entire internet has just turned up to take the piss out of him, and that kind of makes me feel sad. That is sad. So I, just for journalistic integrity, and so we're all on the same page, I do want to read the part of his statement where he talks about Victoria Beckham, e.g. His mother, dancing at the wedding. Quote, my mum hijacked my first dance with my wife, which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song. In front of our 500

wedding guests, Mark Anthony called me to the stage, where in the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife. But instead, my mum was waiting to dance with me instead. She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone. I've never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life. End quote. It is really damning and it is the statement that has sparked a million questions. What does it inappropriately mean? Sorcerally? Does it mean violently? What went on there? I don't know if we'll ever know. The other thing I think is really interesting. And I think you touched on this, Beth, is this has been playing out in the tabloids for about a year. I remember. remember when I was working at Gratzi, when the first, maybe he, Hello Magazine, something like that

page six, started talking about rumors of a rift or, like, kept pumping out these stories. I've seen so many in the past year. So it really just give his statement credence to me. Somebody's talking to the tabloid, somebody's talking to the media. I think he's more blunt in his approach than possibly somebody who is very media trained, very savvy, used to the PR machine, which we know, we know the two of them are, his parents. They are good at controlling the narrative in a way that he probably isn't because they are so experienced in it. Yeah, because I don't remember the, like the Rebecca Lue's stories, for example, the rumors that David Beckham was cheating specifically when that came out, and then it was

rumors that was a lot of other women. I don't remember it being any kind of statement. I remember it was just that she was discredited, the kind of tide turned over time. I think people were like, we love David and we love mess, but we also love David and Victoria. So I think it's quite clear, perhaps very famous people who weren't always famous, weren't always rich. Maybe that is the kind of deal with the devil that you can have all of the friends. this, but you do have to sometimes shut up and bear it when things are difficult behind the scenes

to maintain, as he says, like this brand Beckham. It does feel like those memes have taken over. It's sort of like united the internet in a way that something like this only could. Like, it's like Gary Barlow's big son, but the way more sinister version of that. And I'm seeing, first I saw only that. Now, interestingly, I am seeing the backlash on X of people trying to fact check his statement. So people are calling him a liar and digging up. I think it was a vogue who covered the wedding. So covered it really praisingly, but in Vogue magazine, Brooklyn in his statement says that he sort of missed out on his first dance with Nicola. In a bit of the article, it says they had their romantic first dance. So people are sort of fact-checking that. Another bit is

about the wedding dress. So in his statement, he says that Victoria Becken pulled out 11th hour of designing Nicola's dress. In the piece, it says, quote, Peltz's custom wedding look is the culmination of a year's worth of conversations with Valentino's creative director, two trips to the Rome HQ and two US fittings. The head seems to us. even journeyed to Miami to make sure every detail was immaculate on the big day, which is a slightly different story. But also doesn't mean that that's not the truth. One, I don't know what 11th hour means when you're planning a wedding this big. It could have been a year's worth of conversation still was very last minute. It could also be that the family has decided to feed,

you know, a fake narrative to the press happens all the time. But it's interesting. A lot of these call-up posts are coming from people with pictures of like Kate Middleton as the profile picture. So basically royal family stands who hate Megan, hate defectors from big family, hate sort of anyone that speaks out are also hating there. I think there is a bit of a crossover between the two and it's very interesting to watch. It's probably a really familiar story if you hate Megan Markle, you hate Harry to be like, oh, there you go, this is another Meg's it. I'm watching quite closely the naysayers. So it's, I know Megan's Canadian, but it's also interesting that it's like, sort of like British versus that side of the pond because do you remember in the crown? I can't

remember which Prince was also married an American woman and then had to step down. What was he called? Married Wallace Simpson. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. And she was also like, that was kind of like the original Megan Markle. So there's definitely some sort of like cultural differences perhaps in the way that we approach things that may be men from these very rich, famous families. It gives them a different perspective or I don't know. I mean, the other thing is because there is so much information and like you said, people are now going digging. The other angle that I do think is interesting and this is my own theory is there was a talk about how they had to have like three engagement parties because for one of the engagement parties, because for one of the engagement parties, He's Nicola's father want to invite Donald Trump, who's a close personal family friend. And Victoria said that she wouldn't feel comfortable having her friends there. She didn't think that a lot of her friends

would want to be in a room with Donald Trump. So they organised a separate one without him. And I was like, it could be that the reason that the Becklands don't like, Nicola is actually just because of like her ties to Trump, in which case I as a parent would struggle with that. The thing that I find really interesting is that actually none of this needs to be in the public eye

and it's so interesting that I know that the family is so important to us, but there is another world in which they said, okay, you go and do your own thing. I mean, there's also the story about him signing away's name, and everyone's now pulled up the stuff about when Victoria Beckham trademarked all of the kids' names. Apparently, this is actually really normal, like lots of celebrities do it, Beyonce did it, and it's more so that separate entities,

like, we can't go and trademark under the, like, Brooklyn Beckham's name. But it is just such a modern phenomenon, and you're so right to tie it into, like, I think this is, and we talk about therapy speak, but I do think it is like a generational thing that is going to change between younger kids that have grown up with influence of parents. Like, I don't think that this is going to be

an unusual path to see children really struggling with almost like the secondhand fame that they've inherited as much as being like a nepo baby is a massive privilege. I do think it can cause so much pain. I think the other thing that complicates this is there is unfortunately quite a lot of bad press out about Nicola kind of separately. This is the thing that quashed a lot of the rumours right at the beginning after the wedding was the Peltzes sued the first wedding organisers that they had. And then during that process, the text messages between Nicola and the wedding planners were released. And she didn't come across as the best person. And there's other rumours about her relation with Amma Hadid. Apparently she also ended up being like estranged from Yolanda when they were going out.

Do you think that we as judge and jury will ever really be able to know what's happened? Because I personally am now at the point where I think all of them probably are a bit complicit and probably the only loser really is Brooklyn. I don't know if he's ever going to be able to find peace with it. I don't think we will know the details about it. And maybe it doesn't even matter about the details because I ultimately feel like the emotional truth is the same, that he seems like he's in pain and he's losing out. And I'm sure they're in pain having lost their son to a scenario where it feels out of control. It's just sad across the board the pain he's feeling to put out a statement like this and maybe the isolation of not having his family

probably feels greater because at the end of the day they're a unit. They still have all of their kids. They're together. But he's set off on his own path and that probably that probably is a huge weight to carry now. Yeah, because he mentions his brothers in the statement. He says, quote, even my brothers were sent to attack me on social media before they ultimately blocked me up nowhere last summer. And that's very sad. Obviously, half a beckham, I don't know how old she is. I think family estrangement is such a tricky one because so rarely do you want to cut ties with everyone. Very often it is one parent, both parents, perhaps a sibling. It's never, or it very rarely is absolutely everyone. It's just so complicated. I guess in this case, like it, and it probably

will be really recognisable to a lot of people who are also no contact with family. I guess the money here is quite significant. He has a rich, very rich family, but he's also married into an even richer family. The Beckham's estimated net worth is about half a billion pounds, whereas the Peltz family has about 1.2 billion pounds to play with. So it's like scary sums of money, but also incredibly insulating. But it's interesting that even with all of that, it really is a very difficult decision to make. Incredibly personal. They've chosen to bring it. He's chosen to bring it to Instagram. You can only assume that his hand was forced, and he felt that his hand was forced. And he felt like this is the way, to control the narrative, to reclaim and to put that final line in the sand.

So as much as I'm enjoying it, I'm also like, fuck, this is really, it's sad. It's also none of my business. But I guess that showbiz, baby. One of the things people have been talking about, this is just not the time to be talking about your rich people problems. Like one of the things he says is me and Nicola made such an effort to go to all of my mum's events. But when Nicola asked mum to help with some dog charity thing, like my mum didn't.

Everyone's like taking the piss. And I, and I, annoyingly, like, but I understand because to them, that is like our equivalent of saying, you know, like, I went and helped mum when she needed something and then she didn't pick up my kids from school. Like the kind of levels that we're playing at, fundamentally, it's all very human emotions. It's just the backdrop is exorbitant wealth. And so the stakes are just almost like laughably confusing, the kind of the things that they're talking about, like the wedding dress. And if you boil it down, it can make it sound like all of it is so stupid. But for these people, these are real problems. Do you think that that changes your levels of ability to feel

empathy for them? Or can you see beyond that? I think I can still feel empathy. I mean, There's some bits that definitely they lose me, but I think because the statement, at least with the wedding aspect, was enough stuff where it felt like, oh, that that is quite a lot. And that feels like somebody kind of not comfortable the way he's positioned it. This is not necessarily what I think, but he's positioned it as somebody who's not comfortable with their son having control in these different realms. And it speaks to this idea of a parent just taking control at every point of making it about them. So I feel like that's what I was left with. And the details kind of didn't bother me too much. I think I'm the same as you, where I was like, once I got over the rich people problem,

and because this has been spinning out for a while, I think I could see past it. Yeah, I've definitely got a well of empathy. I think it is for Brooklyn. He is here expressing pain and, like, years and years of pain and also saying, like, I don't want to reconcile. These are his words. He's giving us the glimpse into the family. I really doubt that the beckons will do the same. I don't think it would fit their modus operandi to give any kind of statement, give any kind of glimpse into what's going on.

I think it's better that it stands that he's. He's this sort of wayward son doing this. And so I think my empathy with him is also future facing because I can imagine. We're already saying it. People are turning. People are choosing sides. People being so familiar with Posh and Bex, me, we did our episode on them. We love and adore them.

I have always had a soft spot for Victoria Beckham. But it is remembering that is something of a character and also what we've been fed. So I do think he stands to be really attacked off the back of this. But then again, you know, he is insulated by a huge amount of wealth. So my sympathy has its limit there. I think it would be impossible not to feel some empathy for at least everyone involved. But I think most of my empathy is with him, definitely. Have you also noticed this narrative?

And I'd noticed it from people before this statement, so maybe halfway through last year, of this idea that he's just given up his family for a woman. And I think it's quite a sexist narrative. And it's also one that played into the Megan stuff, but this idea that a guy has been, what's the guy version of dictatized, like whipped by a woman? Clipatized. Oh, clitmatized.

I love that. That's amazing. And essentially just ditched his family and he's just like lost his head a bit. And I definitely noticed people thinking that with this scenario. And I think probably what you said about the Nicola Rumors has definitely played into it. But I also think that is quite a mad, sexist narrative that people are very comfortable with and comes out quite a lot with stories like this. It's also quite Oedipal. Like I always think it's interesting.

We often talk about how when you get married like traditionally you are given away by your father and you're given to another man. take care of you. But in reality for women, I don't think that context necessarily exists because we don't have like that dependence on our fathers anymore. But what you see so much online is talk of boy mums, of how like boy moms are so scared to lose their sons to a woman because they, what's that saying? It's like girls for life, boys and till wife. And about how there is a transition where if you have a son when they get married, you know, you will be replaced by another woman, often women in the home as female partners in heteronormative relationships do perform quite motherly duties for their partners. And then there's all this conversation about how, you know,

there's so many kind of parallels between Nicola and Victoria, even the way that they look. They're both quite strong will. They're both very slim. They're both ex-wise ahead. And this idea that he's gone from one camp with one woman with one ideology and idea to a different camp, with a different woman who's also represents similar things. And it's very odd. And it does seem to be like a real thing as much as it is kind of like a gross, silly thing. I do think it's real. But one thing I will say also is I completely believe the emotional. truth of Brooklyn statement like both of you. But the Beckham PR machine has worked so well on me that I still can't quite believe because of everything I see now, Victoria Beckham. It's like I've got a

cognitive dissonance there where I can't quite get my head around her being that kind of woman. So I watched Hamnet this week and secondhand grief was literally stuck in my throat until I got the overground home where I was just staring blankly into the wall. If anyone who hasn't watched Hamnet, don't worry, we will be talking a little bit about the film. But this is mostly going to be a chat about the discourse and the reception surrounding the film. So if you haven't watched it, I definitely think there's something in this chat for you still. So Habner is a 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell, who has now co-written the script for the film adaptation with Chloe Zau, who made the Incredible No Bad Land. Hamner is the fictional story of how Agnes Hathaway,

played by Jesse Buckley, and William Shakespeare, played by Paul Muskell, lost their youngest son to the plague, and how this tragedy essentially birthed the play Hamlet. So I had to do a little bit of a back check, but very little is known about Shakespeare's life. So this story has been compared to fan fiction. A few things to note, there were actually several other plays, including two comedies, much ado about nothing and as you like it, that came between the death of Hamlet and the creation of Hamlet, according to the New Yorker. Something I've been finding quite mad, and I know we've been posting loads of stories about this in our group, which is the film has been described as grief porn, and there's been a lot of discourse around whether the film is good, whether it's terrible, whether

it's manipulative. So I guess I'll just dive into some of the comments that have been floating around. Justin Chang wrote for the New Yorker, Hamlet feels elemental, but is it just highly effective grief porn? And he talks about that there is this, quote, inherent kitsch in reducing one of the richest, most intellectually prismatic works in English literature, to an instrument of healing. Hamlet has been many things for many centuries. Here it is chiefly the vessel for parents' closure. The rigor of the text melts, thaws, and resolves itself into action. you. And then another piece that's been going really viral is Patrick Sprowell for the Independent, where he compared Buckley's acting in the most pivotal grief scene of the film as Rada acting

you can see from space. He wrote, crafting something designed to make you cry is not actually proof of expert filmmaking. The John Lewis Christmas ad achieves the same thing in under two minutes. Tears are not an objective marker of films quality. The charge of emotional manipulation has been levied against Hamnet and the counter argument is that all films are a form of emotional manipulation. But as we're in the business of film criticism here, it's important to know that some films are extraordinarily successful at disguising the guile and maneuvering involved in manipulation. Hamnet is not one of them. It's been amazing just seeing how discoursing the discourse has been. And only I know you've seen it. What were your thoughts about the film? And then let's go into

this wild reception that's happened. So frustrating me, I hadn't managed to escape seeing all of the scathing kind of grief porn pieces before I went in. So that did somewhat frame. my viewing of it, but I still didn't know what necessarily to expect. And I did find it incredibly moving, as in I went with the man and at points I couldn't breathe because my left nostril got blocked. And I was like, couldn't figure out if I should sniff. I should try and like blow my nose. And then I was stopping. And I was trying to see if he was like getting emotional. At points, actually, I would do some really beautiful crying where I just had like tears streaming down my face. And I was like, oh my God, I wish I could cry out this in my life. My face was really still,

but there was just like, it was so great. And then like the snot came and it was all bad. I think that especially as a woman of a certain age who's like thinking about motherhood, there is no way that you can't watch this film and find it excruciating. And I found it so interesting this framing after having seen it because it's like this idea that the thing is it's a really truthful story. There is conversations within the film and I know it's fiction, but where Shakespeare's mother talks about how, you know, she had stillbirth and stillborn. And at that time, infant mortality would have been incredibly high.

And it's around the time of the plague. Like infant death and baby death would have been a thing that was. really commonplace in homes. And just because it's in the past, it didn't mean that people wouldn't be grieving the death of their children. So what you're seeing in this film, like forget it's about Shakespeare,

forget about whether you think it's fan fiction or not. Contextually, that is something that people would have been experiencing quite frequently. And I think making a film about that is not grief porn, because that is just something that people would have lived through and it's incredibly painful and sad. And in a way, it's kind of amazing to think

how far we've come in terms of how many babies to survive, of how many mothers survived childbirth. A lot of the film is about that. And so it's more like, are you saying that these stories, these stories about women who lost their children, aren't worthy of being told. Because that is another way that you could kind of frame this argument about it being grief porn.

Secondly from that, I did think that the acting was impeccable, especially from Jesse Buckley. It wasn't what I was expecting, actually. I've not read Hamnet. I thought that also the little boy that plays Hamnet and Rituri, I know you must have saying this as well, but his acting was just incredible. And I also kept feeling stressed for him having to play

this part. I thought it was really beautiful. Then I stepped away and I read all the think pieces again and I could completely understand how you got to that conclusion. And it was interesting because the man that I was with said that he read all those pieces and he lent more towards feeling that way, feeling like it was just a relentless onsault of death and things that are like guaranteed to make you cry. And people do always say that like the easiest thing to do an artist is to make people cry and like the hardest thing to do is make people laugh. But I don't think that makes it any less valuable. I know you haven't seen the film Beth, but A, are you going to see it? And B, have you read all of the coverage about it. A hundred percent I am going to see it. I hope I'm going to go and see it. I don't know if it's going to come to the tiny cinema in my town. It may be another one that I have to drive through the Welsh mountains to go and see it. But I think I would, because I did that for Baby Girl, didn't regret it for a second. This does feel like a film that I would like feel its impact and see it because I, these performances are being so lauded. I do want to see it. I have read all of these pieces of coverage. I read, I really like Zoe Williams piece for The Guardian, which was called The Crying Game, what Hamlet's Grie Pondon debate says about women, cinema.

and enormous hawks, which is a reference to the film H is for Hawks, film based on a memoir of the same name, also about a grieving woman. And in the piece, she writes, quote, is it grief porn or is it grief art is a more vexed question? Grief porn in relation to cinema would suggest that the film in question is emotionally manipulative, formulaic. Grief art would suggest the film unleashes feelings both universal and true. And for all of the think pieces, it does feel that the final consensus is,

oh, this is grief art. This is a film about grief that does something interesting. with it at the same time as it hammers you. Because I think grief, in many cases, does hammer you. She also writes, you only get to decide whether it's art, if you're already feeling it so deeply, then it must be, in other words. If the death left you cold and you found the ensuing emotionality, manipulative and domineering, this logic is quite annoying. So I guess she's pointing to how difficult it is to make these assessments fairly, because we all process grief differently. So who are each of us, I guess, individually to say, oh, this is shallow and needless and manipulative,

versus this gets it right. I think that is really difficult. And it feels perhaps like this term has caught fire. People have sensed blood in the water. Oh, we can hammer this film with something. It is a criticism that you don't have to say, I didn't like the film. You go, well, it's actually grief porn. It carries a bit more weight as a critic or as someone that didn't like the film versus

just saying, oh, I didn't like it because it didn't move me. So I am interested to take everything that I've read and lay it on top of the actual film and the text itself and have a bloody opinion because there's nothing I love more. Yeah, it is like those terms can become quite sticky, can't they? Because it just feels like then it becomes a catchall. You are so right about it being, it feels like you have an apt terminology for why you didn't like something. Whereas art is just really subjective and I think it is really hard sometimes to explain why it didn't land. You can reach for it, but that can often be really individual. And it reminds me of the discourse around past lives and Patrick Sprawl in his piece referenced

an art review piece from last year, which spoke about Barbie, but also about past lives and how there's this loss of really making a point because you keep, you keep the storyline vague enough that people can project onto it. And yeah, you cry by the end of the film, but what are you crying about? And I really, at the time, it's like, oh, that's quite an interesting take. But the more I've sat with it, I've just thought, no, I really fucking love past lives. And I really felt understood. And I felt like this immigrant experience really spoke to me and this like, inexplainable feeling that you're always like, what if things had gone differently? Or there's another version of my myself in another life who lived differently and these people around me could have been completely

different. They could have been my best friends. They could have been the people that I stay with for the rest of my life. I don't know. It just, yeah, I don't know. I think, sometimes I always think I'm stupid when I read criticism like this because I'm like, maybe I'm not smart enough to understand what they're saying. But I'm trying to back myself a bit because I actually think I just disagree. And I think sometimes it's okay to feel into a film rather than go straight to logic. And sometimes that feels like that's the blunter end of consuming a film. Maybe that's not the smartest, but I actually disagree. I think sometimes you have to feel a film. Other times you have to think through a film. And with this one, I feel like sitting with the feeling of these

characters, it was really powerful. The acting was insane. The only thing I thought was a point that didn't really make sense for me was they're trying to link the grief of Hamnet into the creation of Hamlet. And I think there wasn't enough connections drawn between the two plays, because they have a few scenes from Hamlet, but it didn't really explain how that makes sense as a natural progression from the grief of your son. And I felt like I had to do the work myself in my brain of being like, well, you know, Hamlet's about this. Dad's about this. It's about sons. But they weren't really showing it in the film. So I think that was something that could have been different. But still, I thought it was amazing. I thought it was a really good film.

Do you ever get that with film criticism where you doubt yourself? That's why I try not to read it because it actually like informs my opinion. Because I also think we have a natural inclination to believe that critical criticism is worth more than positive criticism. and then it like holds more value and that actually anything rude or mean or kind of like disrespectful towards a piece of art must be in some ways more intelligent and it's like higher valued so i do always lose my footing a bit when i've initially really enjoyed something and then i go to find out that everyone else hated it which is why i tried to form an opinion before i go to see what other people have said but i agree with you about the links between hamlet and hamlet and it is quite heavy-handed in the idea that right at the beginning

there's like a piece of text on the screen that comes up and says like at the time hamlet and hamlet were interchangeable names there is a point when Jesse Buckley's character says, why are you using my son's name in the play? And I guess it's like allegorical for this idea that art can help you to process grief. And I wonder if part of the trouble the film's got in is it's very hard to go near Shakespeare. It's really hard to go near stories and plays and someone that we know so well. And in some ways create a story that could be disproved quite easily. Like people find that quite difficult.

So I think it is brave and bold to do it in a way because you're always going to be entering into tricky territory. But this is what I find so funny because of course you have artistic license within a fictional film based on a fictional book to create a story that is not based in truth. I do think that some of the criticism and maybe this is just too basic, but it does feel slightly misogynistic and it does feel like the people writing the more heavily critical pieces are men and the women who seem to be the ones saying like actually I found this incredibly moving and I thought it was an incredible depiction of grief. And lots of women I've read specifically saying that there's a scene. at the end where the mother of Hamlet plays by Jesse Buckley just instinctively kind of reaches her hand out to the stage to touch the character who's playing Hamlet and everyone else at the Globe kind of reached their hand forward. And this is the bit that's received quite a lot of criticism. And actually so many women say, God, it's just such a beautiful moment. And even though it does

feel very kind of like art schooly and it could take you out at the moment, I found it a really gorgeous exploration of how like art can translate grief and make it something relatable and something that everyone can kind of apply their own experiences to. But there's another big criticism of that scene, which I don't know if you've seen, which is that they use, I didn't really notice at the time, but they use a song that apparently infamously has always used in movies to like make you feel really emotional. Yeah, I mean, it's criticisms of like convention in art. It's kind of like saying, oh, this film uses music. And I know there is a school of thought that actually all music in film is manipulative because it is doing. It's an other

element trying to guide emotions. So there's no kind of flaw for this critique. And I think every film that we love and every film on grief that is considered one of the greats will do some sort of convention designed to elicit feelings. It's how films work and sometimes as human beings we need that coaxing, especially in this like very powered down unfeeling age. Actually one of the last things I read about this was an opinion piece in the Irish Independent by Sarah Breen called Is Hamlet Grief Porn or Great Art and she sort of makes the point that maybe it doesn't matter we do need. She loves the film but she says we do need these films about grief and she writes quote, the thing with art is it's never far from life. Almost every time I open my phone or turn on the TV, I'm confronted

with images of dying children, not from the bubonic plague in a beautifully framed scene, but from genocide in Gaza that is being broadcast straight to our screens in real time. According to UNICEF, 100 children have died since the so-called ceasefire in October. They joined the thousands who went before them. Not characters, real kids being gun down and killed in airstrikes and starve to death. The pictures and videos make me want to flick past and change the channel. But seeing Hamlet reminded me that we cannot look away. That's good art. So her argument being, I guess, how can this be grief porn in a world like this? And also like it serves a function not only for viewers to feel something because that's why we go to the cinema to feel something. I think a function of art is to remind people to feel. And if it achieves that, and I do think it is very important in this moment in time that we have films about grief that make people think every child is precious. And whether this film is also a bit heavy handed, I don't know. I will decide that when I see it. I do think she makes a really good point. And I do think it seems a bit petty to be like, oh, and it uses this conveys. of making me feel something. It's like, well, it should. That's the job of the film.

Two points. I remember that I really wanted to bring this here. Did you know the Hamnet and then the actor who plays Hamlet are brothers? They're real life brothers. Yes. So nice. I know. So beautiful. So, so, so, so beautiful. And I completely agree with you. I think the heavy handedness of it still, still impacted me. And I think there's a scene at the end with the reaching that you mentioned. It just reminded me that even in an artistic way when you put something out into the world, it's not a one-way relationship for the person that consumes it to you. It is a two-way relationship. You are both touching that person, but they are also kind of connecting back to you,

especially if you put a piece of yourself into that artwork. It kind of lives on. It's this, you know, living entity. We've spoken about it before. And I just feel like the reminder of that was really precious and, like, very, very moving. And I think it was a good film and I can't wait for you to see it, Beth. Definitely, come back with an update for us. Yep.

And listeners, too, let's know in the comments what you thought. Feel free to disagree. Feel free to agree. Let's know. There was another really good stuff set from Douglas Greenwood, which will link in the show notes, called Maybe You'll Hate This Movie. And the gist of it is basically that criticism like this doesn't actually harm a film, if anything, it actually gets more people to see it. And he finishes it on like, if you read these pieces and go and see it and you disagree, then it'll be doubly as sweet. And if you agree, then you know you've got a friend out there.

And I think that's a good thing to remember about criticism on art. But I also think my last thing is that even if this is grief porn, whatever you want to define it, are we not allowed to have films that make us sob? because that's not a world that I want to live in. Whoever is doing 2016 marketing needs a raise after a nostalgia-based trend caused what feels like the entire internet to look back a decade to the days of Pokemon Go, Brexit, Beyonce's Lemonade, Trump 1.0, Kylie Lipkitts and Chokers to name but a few of the big moments and trends. For those of us who are old enough to own phones and participate in the culture and social media back then, throwbacks are a plenty. For those who missed it the first time around, FOMO is apparently in full forward. course. Harper's Bazaar has called 2016 the last good year and glamour suggested it might be the last time we felt hopeful. I have not participated in the 2016 throwbacks. Ruchera, I don't think that you have either, not to my knowledge.

Anoni, however, I think actually I would like you to tell us yourself about some of the pictures that you dug up from that hallowed year a decade ago. Please take the floor. So I initially wasn't going to participate because a lot of my content from that era is me extremely lean doing like bodybuilding and stuff. And I did put a couple on my story, but I was like, I just don't really want this in my feed. It's just not feeling the right vibes. And then I went back to my archives, so pictures that I've, like, hidden. And what I found was a sea of memes, the most earnest prosceco pink pizza, princess memes you've ever seen that I would have, honestly, when I was posting these, I had like under 10,000 followers. They were getting hundreds and hundreds of likes.

Everyone was living, loving pink pussy hatting around the globe. It was such, actually, it was kind of pre-pink pussy hat because it was, before 2016 had become the ominous year that it became when Trump got in. But we were, us millennials especially, were just thriving. We were girl bossing. We were living. We were at bottomless brunch. So you've got one here, which is you miss 100% of the naps you don't take.

So true. Another one that you have posted, which really moved me, which was, after much research, experimentation and consideration, I've decided adulthood is not for me. Thank you for the opportunity. It's those sort of like sassy, I'm barely a child. which I guess 2026, you were in your first flash of adulthood. These do make sense, but they are so 2026. They're all about pizza and naps and like Paracilth. But wait, I wasn't 26 and 2016.

I would have been 21. Yes. 2026, 10 years ago, 20. Oh, yes. Sorry, I thought you said at 26. At in 26, 2016, I should have said. Why was liking pizza such a personality identifier back then? I don't know. Have we just found out about pizza or something? I don't know. It was one of the mean markers for millennials. I guess there's a lot of. of Gen Z equivalent because of Gen Z are very clear that they are not us, but they have a lot of stuff in that. Do you remember that was that meme? It was like a man who lets me yap while I bounce on it, which is quite a saucy sexual one. But it's kind of like the Gen Z has its own markers of ours was touch my butt and buy me pizza. They just have a different verbage for it. So I can't

actually wait until 2036 when they are looking back at 2026 and they're like actually we were quite embarrassing. Another one which is about pizza. I read a stat that the average person eats 46 slices of pizza a year. This is the first time in my life I've ever been above average at anything. Anoni, you were a meme comic connoisseur. I can't believe, it's just how many I posted because this was at the time when,

I think Instagram stories have been invented, but I used to post six times a day. Six! I'd start my day with a pitch of my eggs, which is kind of how I used to blur, like my egg videos were ever around. My egg porn used to go on Facebook, on a lab Bible,

and I'd be getting like death threats about it. What? I know, it's such a wild time. And then I'd post some kind of meme. Then I'd post a picture of my bum. Then I'd probably post another meme. then maybe like a workout and then like a salad and then maybe like a protein shake all over the course of one day because it was chronological so you don't see it if you were online at the time oh you worked hard you worked hard that's for sure there are actually I think there are actually worse ones then in the next the following year because I changed my name then to like my fifth name change which is my phonetically so I couldn't get my name and I was like watermarking them with my handle which was even better a meme empire was born if people want more of these can you comment in the Spotify comment with a pizza emoji.

Yes. We will bring more of these. Yeah, we will send you more. We have to rename Pizza Gate. This is the new Pizza Gate. Yeah, I know. Do you guys have a standout moment or a standout thing from 2016 that you would like to bring back?

I know it's been said before, but there is something very warming to me about the moustache on finger. It feels fun. It feels crazy. It feels very hashtag amaze balls. I'd like that back. I don't know if I remember 2016 clearly enough to know what, because a lot of people are posting, oh, this was 2016, and it's like galaxy print.

leggings, which were definitely earlier. So I think there's a bit of an acronism going on. But yeah, mustache on the finger, that sort of twee, like everyone had a trilby. Maybe that was a few years before. Mine would be, again, the hope. I think there was a, there was a sense that, oh, this is just a mad time. Things are reversible. Now, 10 years later, I'm like, I don't know if they are. Bring the plague. So I, people have been talking about these, and I know that everyone's really against them. And this might be slightly pre-2016, but I, my uniform at university was River Island, pleather leggings, which had to replace quite often because they would like start cracking. And then those trainers that had high heels in them.

No. I never had the real Isabel Morant once. Mine were from like Zara, but I had about five different pairs. And they were actually so flattering. Like I can. I remember I had a picture of Rosie Hunton and Whiteley on my phone and I used to stare at it and she had like, I think like burgundy leather leggings with burgundy Isbalmaron

Wedged trainers and I was like one day. And maybe that one day is now. I will sob if I see a wedge trainer on a daily commute. I'd never want to see them again. You'll see two pairs when three of us are next together. Me and an annual storm from the room. No. Also, my best ever pair of jeans that were from Topshop, I used to fucking love.

They were black, quite low-rise, so skinny. And then I had two double silver zips on the pockets. And I remember they were just like the best. I just used to also, like a cartoon character, I would get an outfit for like a time of uni. And that would be my outfit. There was one time where all I wore was like shiny leather leggings. Not like shiny, like I don't even know, like almost like the fabric a gymnast would wear leggings with those trainers. and then a leotard.

And like every night, I just wore it every night out. I don't know if I washed it. What were they called? They were the disco pants. Disco pants. American apparel or disco pants. I own those two.

They weren't the most flattering for me personally. But it's like I kind of missed that time. I would just be like, this is what I like. This suits me. What will I wear in a night out? Oh, my uniform. Steve Jobs. Those healthy days.

Yeah, my job was in the club. Thank you so much for listening this week. And if you're looking for more EIC content, make sure you're keeping up with our Wednesday episodes where we tackle extra topics with your help. This week we talked about the latest trend, which is to do nothing, apparently, otherwise known as raw dogging boredom.

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