Life Uncut - Can AI Find You A Soul Mate? And Celeb Endorsed Ozempic

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Hey lifers!! Laura had a surprise baby shower and both Britt and Keeshia were terrible friends and missed it!Last week we offended some of y’all by saying that it was ‘weird’ to have a photo of just yourself as your own phone background… we’re sorry not sorry. If you’re in the dating world it’s likely that you’ve got an opinion on dating apps. It’s likely that that opinion is “I hate them and I’m exhausted by them”. But would you hand over the reins to AI to try and find your person? We are joined by our friend and colleague Claire, described as ‘one of our many single friends’ who has joined the AI dating app. We speak about what it’s like and the unusual way that the app gets you to go on dates. Do you know someone who likes both hiking and the idea of having a dog?? Where is the line between ‘transparency’ of weight loss medication and celebrity endorsement? Serena Williams is sporting a new look. Last week she shared that she had lost 14 kgs by using weight loss medication. She is the new ambassador of a telehealth company that prescribes GLP-1s and her husband is a board member of the telehealth company. We ask: Can you talk ‘transparently’ about weight loss medication if you’re being paid? Should ‘personal struggle’ narratives be used to promote something that feels very emotional to all of us?  Does this destigmatise weight loss medication? Is providing ‘easy access’ to prescription medication ethical? You can watch us on Youtube Find us on Instagram Join us on tiktok Or join the Facebook Discussion Group Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! XxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode was recorded on Camaragal land. Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Laura. I'm Brittany. Hi Brittany. Hey, I am so sorry. Keisha and I missed your surprise baby shower on the weekend. okay so do you know what I'm not annoyed it's okay it was also your birthday weekend so I'm very sorry that yeah my other friends hijacked the weekend that was your birthday as well yeah we wanted to have our own party and they were like sorry this is Laura's weekend so we were like oh okay also also I know that this would have been my sister not because she she wouldn't have known it was your birthday that weekend but she is such an early planner so she would have planned this

like two months ago she planned this before you were pregnant Laura she planned it so long ago that i don't know if you saw it in our we have a joint calendar like it's called time tree we all use it and subscribe if anyone wants a joint work or family calendar no we vibed it like two years ago when we started let's go again it's great so she sent it so long ago and i knew that it was going to be like i had to put it in our calendar so that britain i knew not to do other things on that day so i lied and i told you that britain i had booked in something that wasn't pregnancy safe so that we could like exclude you from it. Weren't you going to an infrared sauna or something?

That's what I said. It was a complete lie. We were never going to that. But I was like, oh, Brit, we've got that spa booked in, you know, that spa day. And I remember looking at you being like, I'm so sorry, Laura, you can't come because you're pregnant. But then we both ended up being away for our birthdays anyway.

I know. I'm sorry. That's okay. Don't worry. I did feel shit. Yeah, you should. She didn't. She didn't.

She was like, party! I looked around the room and I was like, why are my best friends not here? Where are these bitches? How dare they? I was there. I just hid so well for the surprise. Okay, so I've never, ever had a surprise anything before.

Firstly, I was adamant. Supreme, you've had a surprise pregnancy multiple times. What more do you want? Apart from the pregnancies, no, I've never had a surprise. I've never had a surprise. I mean, I don't know. How did I feel actually when I first found out I was pregnant with Marley? I sat on the floor and cried.

At least I had a different reaction to this surprise. So I've never had a surprise party. I've never had a surprise anything. And I was so adamant, like about two months ago, my sister-in-law Kate said, are we going to have a baby shower? And I was like, no, why would we have a baby shower? It's the third one. We've showered all the babies.

No one cares. No one cares. I was like, no one will even come. Anyway, she was like, please, we, at least we need to go and have like a girl's lunch or do something. And I was like, absolutely not. There is no need. It is so much effort and no one needs to.

I think once you've had two kids, you've kind of hit peak baby shower. You don't need anything else. Also, because you're having another girl. So if you're having a boy, maybe I'd give you more sympathy. I would have come. I need some zippies. But I was like, absolutely not. Anyway, so Kate, Matt's sister, she has three kids.

And she really like, she latched on. She was like, you don't understand, Laura. Your life is over. Your life is going to be fucked. And I was like, can you, I know you mean this with well wishes, but I was like, you're scaring me now. She's like, we need to hold a wake for you. And that is what the party will be.

So on the weekend, Matt had kind of only told me a couple of days ago. He was like, oh, you know, we're going out for lunch together. And I was like, oh, okay, cute. And he's like, yeah, like a date lunch. You and I pre-baby coming. We need to spend some time together. And we just had a very normal Saturday. So we went to the farmer's markets with the kids.

And we had to be at lunch by 12.30, right, because I knew he had this booking. it was 11 50 and we were still at the farmer's markets running around with the kids eating pancakes and stuff and I was like oh we should get home I probably need about 15 minutes to get ready for this lunch so we get home and I go to Matt I was like oh how dressy like do I need to dress up for lunch because he hadn't really told me what we were doing or anything and he was like no babe just catch this lunch just catch just catch so I just she puts her Haviana's on I I freaking did. She puts her sparkly shoes that Lola loves on.

Guys, you know what my footwear is like at the moment. I put on like the daggiest pair of like sandal slides. The rest of it was relatively fine, but it wasn't what you would wear to your baby shower. I wasn't wearing like a pretty baby shower dress. I just had a see-through top on, a black bra and some pants. I think you look cute. Thanks. Thanks.

It was understated. And I think at eight months, slides are okay as well. We're going to let it all slide. Oh, how the tides have turned. it's more it's more the case that like a little bit of preparation would have been nice like I had 15 minutes I got ready girls would know girls would know to say like oh it's going to be a little bit dressier or like they would give you some indication yes yeah your girlfriend would say just wear a nice dress like we're gonna have a lunch like let's dress up you're not gonna get

to go again until the baby let's dress up that was like just be cash so I did anyway I walk in to this restaurant and I don't know if my processing actually I do know my processing time is a bit delayed at the moment. I think the pregnancy has really got to me with the repeat storytelling and everything that I've been doing lately. So I walk in and we start walking towards the table. And then I see one of my girlfriends, but mind you, she's been living in New York for the past year. So I've not seen her for an entire year, Sarah. And you know, she's one of my closest friends and I see her, but she's on the floor. Like I can see her through a gap in the tables. And that's when I called triple zero. And I was like, why is Sarah on the ground? And my brain

was like what's going on why is Sarah on the floor and then as I got closer everyone jumped out and screamed surprise but my brain was still like why is Sarah on the floor wow this really has slowed down hasn't it it took me so fucking long to process what was happening now days later are you aware of what happened I think Sarah's still on the floor won't someone think of Sarah anyway everyone jumped out they're like surprise hang on did Sarah come from New York for your baby shower because that makes us pretty shit friends no she'd just come home but one of my girlfriends traveled up from shore harbour it's like a three-hour train ride oh no i just rub it in laura rub it in i was more worried about the new yorker okay so anyway like all surprise

surprise but you know how you see those like idyllic birthday or whatever surprise videos and like the person's instantly like oh my god overwhelmed with love and excitement like my engagement video. Yes. Like that. And we all just instantly like snapped into gear, right? Like my brain was working at full speed, full throttle back then. Everyone afterwards was like, are you angry? Cause it took me so long to respond. Were you a little bit? Were you like, I really didn't want to surprise people. You're like, oh, three hour lunch. No, no, no. I was like, I was very excited. It was very sweet. It was like the sweetest thing that's ever been done. But my sister, Kate, my sister-in-law, and then one of my girlfriends, Kaya organized the whole thing.

and honestly I'm just completely shocked that that many people for that length of time were able to keep it a secret it's beyond me it was really cute it looked really cute and everyone's been so excited for so long because we've all been in the group chat obviously we've seen the Keisha and I have seen the photos but we I mean I felt bad I couldn't make it because it was also my birthday weekend I didn't get a surprise party but I felt bad but I'm glad seeing it that you had a really amazing time it was so so nice surprises are like the hit and miss though you're either a surprised person or you're not like you either detest them and you want to know and be a control freak and like know everything that's happening or you love them I don't hate them don't get me

wrong I freaking loved it I had the absolute best day like I could not be more grateful for all the organization that went into it but I would have had just as much fun had I known and I just would have looked better and I would have looked hotter yeah anyway look guys last week we were talking about something I think I stuck my foot in this a little bit so I made the comment actually maybe we will just repeat back to it. Cause I can't remember exactly what I said, but it was something about screensavers. And I was calling out people who use themselves on their own screensavers. It came off the back because I've recently like done that little update thing where you can have a rotating face. And so I've changed my screensaver. So it rotates between the girls.

And then I mentioned that some people have screensavers of themselves and apparently had very strong opinions on it. I would say that this is akin to people who have themselves as their own screensavers because that's like me that was you as well let me just let me just check no I always have me but I have me and Ben from the wedding yeah so cute if it's a couple photo but like you know when someone's just like gotten hot and then they have a bikini photo of themselves or no one has their own bikini photo on their phone yes no they don't people aren't doing that if you do it change it now I just want to apologize I didn't mean to bully anyone and also I think we triggered a couple people you triggered me you used to bully me because I

had a screensaver of me and Delilah at the beach. Never. Just because I had no clothes on. Just because you're in a bikini. Just because I was naked. And Delilah was swimming. You couldn't even say I was naked. No, I'm joking. That's also not true, guys. What I'm talking about is when people like use themselves as a screensaver, but they do it amongst other things that feel like a prop. So like, for example, what I said basically is, you know, if you're like being on this beautiful holiday and it's like a sick bikini photo, but there's a sunset, but you really just, you look hot. So then you use it under the guise of it's a sunset photo, but actually you're just a hot person on your own screensaver. I don't feel as strongly about it as you do. I think

it's okay. I think it's okay to have yourself in a sunset as a silhouette or a hot bikini photo, whatever. Okay. Well, we received a few comments. Actually, we received so many DMs from people who felt personally victimized. Here are some of them. I used to be friends with a girl who had a rotating photos of just herself as her wallpaper. Okay. Too much. If it's rotating, I mean, if you're in a carousel of yourself, it's too much. And I always thought it was really weird. Someone else wrote, oh my God, I feel personally attacked. I literally have a sunset photo of me in a bikini in Phuket.

Phuket's lovely. You got me. I looked hot and I'm changing it now. Oh, I used to use pictures of myself as my screensaver when I was 21. That's okay. You're finding out who you are and you need your confidence. I think that that's okay. And you're 21.

You're never going to be hotter again. Oh my God, I've just listened to this on the podcast and I'm changing it immediately. I wanted to put a maternity photo of myself and put my bump, but then now I think that that's weird. No, that's not weird. Okay, why? Technically, you're not the only person in the photo. Neither if you have Delilah or if someone is in the background

of your Phuket sunset photo, you're not the only one either. I think a maternity bump is different because it's a temporary moment in time, you know. It's like it's an experience. You're not going to have your maternity. Sorry, her bikini body is a temporary moment in time too. It's not always going to be like that. She just doesn't know it.

Yeah. Maybe she does know it. Hold on to that, Queen. No, I think like with a baby bump, because usually once the baby's born, you update it. Oh, fuck. Wait till I get pregnant. I'm going to bring in framed photos and put them on the Life Uncut bookshelf. Yours is literally just rotating baby bump photos.

It'll go up on the shrine. There was actually someone who wrote that. It gives the same vibe as people who have professional photos of themselves on their bedroom wall. Do you guys remember those? Do you remember them though? Like those professional photo shoots, they used to be in the middle of the shopping center and you could get them taken and they would have the feather boa and the clip on pearl.

earrings they're called a glamour no no yeah it was a thing no when i had them done as a kid which now in retrospect fucking bizarre but that hasn't been around for like 25 years so no one's no one i would know in our generation has a glamour shoot photo of themselves printed on their wall but there is someone i know who has a glamour shoot photo of her and her boyfriend husband in france in front of the louvre on their wall yeah i don't know who that could be back to the bullying so the last few years I feel like I've really let the team down Laura I've let you down I fell in love I got taken off the dating scene and I no longer have my finger on the pulse and I'm no longer able to bring the stories that I used to be able to bring like sit on your face

guy meat raffle meat raffle I miss meat raffle where is he how is he probably still meat raffling what who else was there sit on my face guy meat raffle oh I mean there were loads So the guy that made me buy his dinner, the guy that asked me to dinner and then didn't eat, the guy that asked me to dinner and then said he lost his wallet. We need to go back through the archives and go and try to find. Oh, a highlight reel? No.

My disaster dates? No, of all the names, of all the dating characters that we had that we gave you over the years. Yeah, meet Raffles, sit on my face guy were the standouts. They were peak. They were peak dating days. Yeah, they live on forever. But I am very lucky.

So one of our friends and work colleagues, Claire, she works behind the scenes for podcasting. so we get to see her most days when we go into radio and podcasting and I see her all the time she came to the wedding like she's a very good friend of ours but I'm living vicariously through her now I don't want to I don't want to highlight it too much but she is one of my only single friends she is our resident single person so she has become like the resident she comes to me and tells me all the stuff that's going on and the issues and ask advice and then I'm just like poor Claire like I pull information from her because I want to live vicariously and I want

to know what's going on in the world but I discovered through Claire this new dating app that I hadn't even heard of when I say new it's not like it didn't come out two weeks ago but it's pretty fresh and it's an AI dating app I don't know if you've heard about it it's called Amata it's an app that is basically fueled by AI so like you sign up you tell it a few prompts you create like a little avatar chat bot that's for you and then it pulls information from you it's like what do you like to do who are you what are you looking for and instead of I guess you normally going onto a dating app and writing prompts like you stand in the dating world now it then creates your profile and then based off AI so you don't swipe based off AI it goes and just finds you

people and presents them with you if it thinks you're a match now it has these like really weird features if you say yes you think that that's a match you actually can't talk to the person AI sets you up on a date you don't even get to pick where you're going it just like makes like AI does everything it's like a dating I guess it's like a dating concierge in a way sets up the date and then an hour or two hours before the date it unlocks and you're allowed to start talking i think it's fucking wild my thing about this though is to me it's like it's outsourcing your dating life to ai but i think so many people rely on chat gpt in general now that it's like now you don't even have to do any of the heavy lifting totally no banter no chats no pre-organization no

swiping just tell chat gpt that you're looking for a man it'll find one for you now no one even has to find a venue to go to like you don't do anything the person doesn't have to book a restaurant they might be absolutely useless I don't know I don't know how I feel about this and also is it relevant how I feel about this because we have Claire here to tell us exactly how she feels about this so okay Claire welcome to the podcast hi thanks for having me a really nice introduction as the only standing single person left that you know in Sydney I was exaggerating I have two there's another one right I have a few does that make you feel better not really yeah okay firstly it has been one of the cornerstones of what Life Uncut was originally

built on and that was like fucking chaotic dating stories and then all of a sudden we talked about this recently when we revisited like people's worst first date and stories like and it was very it was very funny the life has came through with some great content but we know it's the cesspool that it was when we left like we know that it's still the same it's worse if anything what it's going downhill what is okay explain armada to me from how you've experienced it so far okay so i'm new to this app i've only been on one date from it but loads of my friends are on it and they will recommended it as being something really good saves time way better than the other dating apps I thought I'd give it a go I have not had the best experience I think it

has the concept to be good like I hate small talk I'm really time poor I work a lot if I could outsource that great if it could find me the love of my life perfect but it doesn't seem to do that it seems to just kind of regurgitate everyone who's on the app to you without really sense checking or finding many details from it and it seems to ask you a few little questions to try and draw out information from you and then it hangs onto it. So give me an example of what that would look like. So if it's like, oh, hey, here's someone we think is a match, what could be that common link that Armada has decided

is a good match for you for the strong foundation of a really like long-term relationship? Well, the key thing I think it thinks I want is someone who has or is open to having a dog. Yeah. It's so funny. Claire's AI bot presents to people and he's like, hey, Frank has a dog. We think you'd be the perfect match.

It's like Frank may not have a dog yet, but he is interested in getting one in future. I think you'd be a great match. I'm like, that is not the only requirement. Just because one time I said I liked a dog, that does not mean that's the foundation. I will not go out with anyone who does not have a dog. You're like, sorry, does Frank have a job? Does he have hobbies? Does he?

How old is Frank? And the other thing it really thinks I like, which is true, I like hiking. So it's always like this guy loves hiking. I'm like, yeah, okay. But again, it's not the only thing that I need. But does he have a dog? I need the dog. Does he hike with the dog?

I like it on premise, but I also understand that like when you kind of like hand over your dating, like the nuance of your dating life to a chat GPT robot, it is always going to try and find what are like those obvious common links. Because I mean, and I guess maybe as things get more intelligent and as that software develops it may genuinely become more intuitive and be able to better match people so then okay so it prevent it presents you with frank frank likes to hike and likes a dog are you then able to chat further with your bot to discover more about frank or is what they've presented you like you say yes or no can you then say hey what else does frank like to do can you get more from

it if you need to or is it like here's his profile he loves dogs and he loves the outdoors yes or no Well, I've been testing this theory because sometimes I've noticed it will hide certain things. So if it doesn't say anything on there about what kind of relationship Frank is looking for, which is a key thing for me to be looking for someone who's looking for a long-term relationship, like I'm not looking for fuckboys. If it doesn't say anything there, I'll ask it. And it will then go, oh, yes, Frank is looking for something casual. Well, you've hidden that from me because you know I'm not aligned to it. So actually my AI is tricking me into going on dates with people who aren't suitable. being gaslit even by your AI but that seems that seems so counterintuitive I wonder if it's a

benefit to the dating platform to try and have them like try and have people go on as many dates as possible because obviously it is still success by numbers right you need people to be going on these dates to have a successful outcome but it seems counterintuitive to match someone for something fundamental like that someone who says I'm looking for a relationship and someone's like I'm looking for casual that to me is like a horrific mismatch in trying to put two people together and the fact that they're hiding it from you as well it feels like you're being tricked by both the man and the ai and then yourself it's also interesting to think though because i was under the impression that it's not an endless stream of prospects so like it gives you like

three or four or something at a time and then it stops so if it's only giving you a couple and then it stops so that you make a decision it's crazy then if it's only going to give you three to make them people that are actually not aligned with what you want maybe it just shows that there's that many men in I mean Sydney specifically no one wants any relationship casual just keep it cash don't want anything serious and then so you match how does it create your date spot does it ask you for like where your location is so it can create something in the middle or like how does that work when you first sign up you say where you would be open to going on dates in so it's like central Sydney or eastern suburbs so you pick your locations and then once you agree to go on a

date it will pick one that aligns with what the other person has picked as well and then it picks the venue itself so you don't play any part in it and for me i had heard my friends had all been sent to like really cute wine bars and cute little cocktail bars and you meet it tells you you're meeting for a drink so it assigns what you're doing yeah but the only one i went on i got sent to an american bar and grill wow and if you don't want to go to something like that can you change it you like that is not suitable because it doesn't tell you the details it just confirms the time confirms the spot and then it sends you the details just before this gives me anxiety Claire, you've been set up.

She went to a bar and grill. Okay, so you get to the bar and grill. Go to the bar and grill for a drink. It tells you when you show up that you're meant to just go to the front of desk and just say that you're here for the AI date. I was like, that's already quite embarrassing because even though I'm on this podcast, I'm fiercely private when it comes to dating. I definitely don't want everyone to know what I'm doing.

But also, who wants to go up to someone and say, hey, I'm here for the AI date? Like, there's got to be a better way to do that. But when I arrived, there were like six people in front of me. It was pouring with rain. I was trying to get in the door. and i saw the front of house and he saw me and he just looked at me and went you come forward ahead of the six other people waiting in line and then he pointed your date is here to the other side of the restaurant where a man who i've never met is stood up waiting for me to

join him i can't like maybe put a red flag on your head like a siren on your head to make you walk through the restaurant yeah so then everyone in the restaurant and everyone I pushed in front of with my early access knew that I was on a first date with a stranger I felt very very self-conscious of it as well like everyone around you knows that you're suddenly on this first date so you know everyone loves to listen to someone else I do it myself you know it is interesting to people watch but you definitely don't want it when it's you because you're very self-conscious and because this wasn't a romantic spot to go for a drink and you're not in a private corner where you can get to know each other you're just it was a very busy restaurant we were the only people

there on a date it was completely packed with club music playing around you and also it was a restaurant where you weren't allowed to meet for just a drink you had to have dinner so I had to have two dinners that day oh that's so annoying that seems like a real that seems like a real mismanagement of the app as well because also if you end up on this date and you're not vibing the person and you've had to order a meal you're not able to exit yourself whenever you want to leave that seems like it's a really kind of that seems like a flaw and then okay who paid he paid okay that was nice which yes that was very nice you have tried all the apps and there's like guys i was on every single app i was paid subscriptions on apps there's nothing wrong with it it is

literally how we date right now and each app gives you something different which is why it's why i was on all the apps it's not necessarily to be people used to shame like it used to be back in the day it was like shameful if you paid for subscriptions but i was like i have to subscribe I've exhausted every single person. There is no one left in my area. Yeah, I had to pay for super likes. I was like, I want a super like him. Okay, what?

$2? Okay, I'll do it. I'll do it. I mean, my love is worth that. Five, three for one. But it's like each app brings you something different. And I very much think they used to have different things. Like when I was on them, Tinder was the known hookup app and like less serious.

But if you really knew you wanted a relationship, you'd go on Bumble or there was just always that general feeling. I'm assuming that is still there how do you find it compares to the other apps well I feel that that still exists so tinder is still the one that's less serious and then maybe bumble then hinge this new one I mean it's hard to tell if everyone on there is looking for a serious relationship because I guess I haven't got enough data from it but the difference is you always have to pay on this app so you have to both commit to the date and then you pay before you've even met okay So the point of that, I guess, is to ensure that people come.

But I heard at the start you got to refund that back when you went to the date so that you got that back on food or drink or whatever you were going there for. That is not true. You're just paying to go. You're paying for the setup. Yeah. And I would say that that is and what is what makes it slightly more problematic if the system is matching you with people and hiding information that you know is a mismatch because

that would be where the kickback is coming from. So that initial payment, which, you know, might go to the restaurant, but they would also be going back to the app, whatever percentage that is. So it's in the app's best interest to try and match as many people as possible, not necessarily because they are the best match for them. And then I think that that seems really deceiving and deceitful. I also don't know how I feel about the idea of, and you just said it Claire, but the idea of it just streamlines it. It's more time efficient. I'm busy. I don't want to spend time on there. I'm not convinced it's the right thing to do when you're looking for somebody to date. Like I think there's just too much room

for error I don't know it's the one thing I think it needs a human connection AI doesn't know who you are as a person doesn't get your personality traits the idea of like handing that over to a robot praying that one of the three people it gives you is the right person but not being able to confirm it until two hours before the forced dinner that you're supposed to go on I don't know there's something that it's just it's not human enough for me when you're trying to find that connection? I think it could get good. I reckon in a year or so's time, if they were to do it better and they were to actually be using the intelligence that AI has to be able to pick through a few people, weed out some people who aren't looking for a serious relationship or who don't want a

dog in their future, you know, it could really help. And then they could give you a bit more time to get to know that person just before you go on the date. It doesn't need to be just two hours before to confirm your attendance and say what time you're going to get there. I think it could benefit people and it could help you find a match because it is hard to find people one more point about it costing money is that i think it charges you different rates uh because i got charged a different rate to go on a date than my friend did and i asked the ai whether that was the case and they were like yes we can sometimes do it i can't give you like details of what other people are doing that seems a bit dodgy as well that it's not like a set rate for everyone to go

on a date it's probably assigned based on how much energy or how much time you're putting in it so So you don't pay to sign up in general. You pay per date. Per date. Can we ask what fee that is per date? Well, for me, the fee was $25. But for my friend, it was $15. Wow.

And you don't know why that is? No. Oh, I don't know how I feel about that. It got to your bank account and I was like, Claire earns more. I wish that was the reason. It's like Claire's more single. But would I recommend it? I don't know.

For me, it hasn't been a great experience. But for everyone else who recommended it to me, they've had a much better experience from it. And they have met people that they have gone on a second date with and they have gone to really nice venues that they wouldn't have known about otherwise. They found like romantic spots that they would also go to again. So I think they would recommend it. For me personally, I don't think it has been helpful.

All right, a little bit of a change of pace here, but something that we wanted to talk about, and you guys might be familiar with it because it's been in the news quite a bit lately, is Serena Williams. Now, she's been speaking very openly about her experience of using GLP-1s. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, you will know because it is Ozempic or all of the different variations of weight loss drugs. Monjaro, Wegovi, there's like a bunch of different names. The reason why there has been some very mixed reactions is it because it blurs the lines

between weight loss and I guess like transparency around weight loss medication and celebrity endorsement. So last Thursday, this publicity announcement for Serena was embargoed into 9am and it was first announced in People and she also went on the Today Show to talk about her experience with the weight loss drug. Have a listen to this. Well, a lot of people have been wondering about my new fitness journey and what I've been doing. And I've been really open about me being on GLP-1s and I thought it was really important just to come out and say it. So I'm on a GLP-1 through row.co. And for me, it was really just about taking away that stigma of like,

is it a lazy way? Is it a shortcut? Like, why would you do that? And so for me, like after having my first kid with Olympia and then you know in particular after having the second kid I was never able to be at a healthy weight that I could be at whether it was my joints or blood sugar levels it was just always something that I suffered with and a lot of women actually go through this and I always said that I feel like for me personally I feel like you know what after I had my kids after I got a tad bit older like my body was actually missing something no matter what I did. I literally was playing professional tennis and you can even see like sometimes I would, I had this really awesome documentary a few years ago and you can see in the documentary, my coach is

telling me you have to lose weight. You have to lose weight. I'm playing professional tennis. I'm literally training five hours a day and I would always work my way to one point of the scale and it would never go below that. And so eventually I just, you know, I saw my friends using it. I saw a lot of people on it and I tried it and it, and it actually worked. So the reason why this has been deemed as quite controversial isn't because she's being transparent, quote unquote, around using weight loss drugs. Firstly, I think people's reaction was like, wow, finally a celebrity actually speaking about this honestly and openly. It was actually the fine print that was in the press release. Now what came out is that the company that she's representing and also is an

ambassador for is a telehealth company called Roe, as she said in that interview. But she did just sneak it in. She's like, I've been doing this just through Roe.com. So Roe, Roe being a telehealth company, the reason why that this is a little bit more sinister is because her husband, so Serena Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, who is the co-founder of Reddit, he is actually an active member of the board of this company. So there is a lot of monetary kickbacks and one can only assume a multi, multi-million dollar, multi-level, multi-year ambassadorship that has come with speaking about this. We have a few questions, but one thing I wanted to read out is from The Guardian because I think that this was written really well and it really unpacks kind of the

debate that we have been having internally because we have really different feelings about this so this was written by Brian Armand Graham in the article Serena Williams built her legacy on defiance why lend it to a zempic culture many saw Thursday's collective messaging not as candor but as advertorial personal struggle framed as stealth marketing in an era when audiences are used to celebrities weaving mental health confessions or fitness journeys into commercial deals. William's campaign was interpreted less as openness, more as strategy. Brilliant. I don't think that's brilliant. I don't think that that is a brilliant statement at all. Why can't it be both? This is my question because why can't it be an open, honest conversation

and advertising at the same time? Because I truly believe that's what it is. She's openly advertising it, but that doesn't mean that she didn't have the struggles that goes along with it. It doesn't mean that she's not being open about the fact that, Hey, you know what? I had kids. I couldn't lose weight after that. Like, I think that is such a relatable piece of information. And I know there are people out there, including like you guys, Keisha and Laura, that think that maybe that relatability is not necessarily an authentic relatability, but maybe it's a marketing tactic that has pulled on emotional strings of women that have had babies and can't lose weight. I do feel that way. And I think that that's why it blurs the line between transparency

and exploitation, because while Serena Williams is not a relatable person to many of us. Which is 23 times Grand Slampion. A hundred percent, right? Grand Slampion? She is a Slampion. She's a 23 times Grand Champion. I think that her lifestyle, and one thing that I really like about this that we are going to unpack is that I think it really does aid in the de-stigmatization of the fact that weight

and obesity even are not issues of willpower and they're not issues of discipline because Serena Williams you'd be hard to find someone who says that she wasn't a very disciplined person who had a lot of willpower but I do think that it kind of it starts to see-saw into a slightly problematic area when you are using a deliberately emotional and vulnerable thing that every like a weight in general is such an emotional thing connecting that to a story that so many people can relate to in that you know I've had children and my body changed and you know we've been told for so long how to get your pre-baby body back and all that kind of thing it really lends into that type of culture where it's like after I've had a baby I couldn't change my body I needed to

go on to this thing the only way I was able to do this is through the thing that I'm now financially profiting from but that's where I think the line is blurred so I have a problem with this and I don't have a problem with this. And they're in sections. Personally, and I know there'll be people that disagree with me. I don't have a problem with a celebrity saying, hey, I lost 14 kilos and I didn't do it naturally. I did it with a Zen pick. No, I think that that's brilliant, but I don't think they should be getting monetary kickback for that. I don't have a problem with that. I think that is brilliant that we are being authentic and people are realizing, oh, you know what? I don't feel as bad because I am out grinding in the gym for four hours a morning before my kids

get up because I'm desperate to lose weight and it's not moving but why can all these people do it like I think that that is a really great thing I think it is taking stigma away from people that are using it whether that is for you know morbid obesity or you're slightly overweight for whatever reason we know there is a huge amount of people that have health issues off the back of being overweight I'm not saying Serena was overweight she absolutely didn't look like she was overweight in any capacity but you can't be completely okay with the fact that she's promoting something that you know she's getting a kickback from and then the question for me then comes to well whose problem is that do we just need to make sure we're more media literate and say like she has said that

she's working for them we all know that her husband is on the board he's been on the board since 2018 we all have that information I don't think it's her responsibility or can be blamed for promoting something and saying I'm being paid for it then if we want to go and use it of course there is an advertising level there and responsibility might be the wrong word but I think as a consumer, we still need to be made aware that we're like, cool, we know she's getting paid for it. We know she's used it. We know it's for this reason. What do we want to do with that information? So this is where I disagree because I think we can all, and firstly, I think absolutely it's great that someone like Serena Williams can be the face of a weight loss drug where she's

saying, Hey, even I needed help. So like, it's not about being lazy. It's not about like corner cutting. It's about assistance. The problem for me is, is that this isn't about the actual drug itself. It's about easing the accessibility to the drug. So the fact that by saying, oh, I got this through Roe telehealth, what she's actually saying in that is it's really easy to access this. You don't have to go to your GP. You don't have to have a face-to-face appointment. You can just call up this telehealth program and that is how you're going to be able to get a prescription. And guess what? Look at me, I've lost 14 kilos. And I think conflating that part of the accessibility of it with also the monetary investment that she's receiving and then connecting

that to the emotional piece. I mean, we all know that celebrity endorsements are incredibly effective. It's the same thing as influencer endorsements are incredibly effective. That's why brands do it. I don't want to put the blame on the consumer and be like, well, it's your fault if you've just seen this and then you've run out the door and gotten it. I think that's the reason why celebrities are paid millions and millions of dollars to promote something because it sells and because they are incredibly aspirational figures. So I don't think it comes down to literacy. I actually think it comes down to restrictions. This isn't the first time that Rotelli Health has done this. They did a massive Superbowl campaign with a male athlete whose name

I can't pull off the top of my head right now for a similar weight loss drug situation and trying to show the accessibility of it. We have different standards in Australia. You could not do this in Australia. We can't even promote sunscreen as influences quote unquote in Australia because celebrity endorsements around things that should be pharmaceutically or medically prescribed is really a gray area that I think opens itself up for what happens is people go doctor shopping. So if you haven't gotten the outcome that you want from your doctor and they didn't prescribe you that weight loss drug that you wanted, well, don't worry. Just call up this telehealth company. They'll do it for you. And that's where I think the real problem lies. I do think we're looking

at this and conflating the two issues. I think as a whole, people are looking at it without breaking it down and saying, you know, she absolutely shouldn't be promoting that. She shouldn't be promoting the telehealth company. That's how I feel. I feel like it's okay for her to say, and it's good for her to say she did it honestly with a Zempik or a Govi or whatever she used, whatever GLP-1 she used. That's not the problem. The problem is exactly what you just said, Laura. It's the telehealth. And that is because there's no follow-up. You don't get to talk to a GP. You don't get to go through like full medical histories. You don't actually know what is going to come from it. You don't know if you're going to be one of those people that has a really

bad reaction to it or a side effect to it. Like you don't know those things, but it's the accessibility to it for people without having the proper follow-up care. Interestingly, I don't know if you guys listen to this, but the Daily Oz did a three-part investigation specifically into weight loss medications in Australia. Very, very eye-opening. And some of the practices of certain companies basically are very much in line with what you're saying. They do not provide what I would consider to be a standard of care that I think most people would find appropriate. But I do kind of almost want to flip this in the Serena situation and talk about the accessibility and maybe whether that's actually a good thing. So I think that, you know, whenever we have these

conversations about weight, it's incredibly complex and there are, you know, eating disorder conversations. And there's also like the effects of obesity on our economies, the effects of obesity on people's health. But I learned so much about this from Johan Hari's book, Magic Pill. We did an episode with him. And I think that we fundamentally have a bit of a problem with people losing weight very quickly because historically we have seen weight as something that you should be ashamed of. It's something that you should feel bad about. And the only way that we've ever really accepted weight loss is through struggle. It's through restriction. It's through putting yourself through pain and suffering. And interestingly, that Biggest Loser documentary

came out just last week where we literally sat down and watched it on our TVs. We watched people struggle through pain and restriction so that humiliation, you know, there's just so much wrapped up in the way that we view weight. And I think that it's really hard to unpack that and undo that. And these medications are giving us a fast track to people losing weight. And I think that fundamentally, a lot of people do still have a problem with that. They think it's a cheating way out. And so having someone like Serena Williams come out and say, actually, there's so much more to this like there is a lot more psychology there's a lot more in our environment of processed food it's not your fault that you've been put in this position and even I needed

assistance and I wonder if for people who might have a lot of complications associated with obesity that might not have access to a doctor or maybe they have seen a specialist and their specialist for whatever reason didn't think that it was an appropriate treatment for them I wonder if maybe increasing the access through a telehealth company could be a good thing for them I think they have follow-up this is the thing I actually think that the problem is the way that the telehealth companies are regulated and from what I've heard about you know the situation in Australia how unregulated they actually can be well I mean you guys know I just called a good friend of mine who received weight loss medication through an Australian telehealth company the thing is is

that if you want to access something enough, you know, the things to say, to be able to access it. And the difference is, is when you have to go and sit in front of your GP, firstly, you can't doctor images. You can't change anything. You are the person that you are. You are the weight that you are. You walk into the GP, you have a face to face. You talk about all the reasons why you want to go on a weight loss medication. My friend who, and obviously this is a sample size of one, but he very recently was prescribed through a telehealth Australian company. He described the different techniques that can be used in order to explain why it is that you need to have this weight loss drug. You can also have the telehealth meeting without your camera on and simply send through

a photo. So you can, someone could send through a photo from years before when they were bigger, you know, there's, there's just so many ways around it. And I do think it lends itself to this shopping around to get the outcome that you want as a patient, which is quite problematic. I think I do. I mean, I know that like Australia is very different to the United States and the United States has such different rules for celebrity endorsements when it comes to things like plastic surgery or pharmaceutical drugs. We even had a similar conversation that was circulating around Meghan Trainor becoming the face of a breast implant surgery and whether or not that was ethically okay. And I think that this kind of sits within the same realm. The reason

that to me, it feels icky, even though I would love celebrities to start coming out and being like, yeah, I lost weight because I'm on a weight loss drug. I would love them to be honest about it because firstly, it sets an unrealistic standard that they're not. But the reason why this one feels icky is because it's not transparency because you can't be fully transparent if you're getting monetary kickback. If there is a complication that goes wrong, if she does start having side effects, if something is impacted, it is not in Serena or her husband's best interest to come out and say, hey, you know what? I got really bad gastrointestinal problems or actually I ended up getting thyroid cancer because I was on this

weight loss drug for so long. You know, there are a lot of, I mean, there's so much positive information that's coming out about these, but there are some really severe negative side effects that have been documented. And I don't think that we would have that same transparency when money is attached. Yeah, I feel the same. Most of the research at the moment actually says that it changes the way that your reward center works. So it's not just that you feel more full from food. It's also that food is less pleasurable. They're being used in addiction, alcoholism, PTSD treatment right now, they're under clinical trials for treatment of those conditions because of the way that it affects your reward center. And with that can come very serious psychological

consequences. If you're impacting the way that you experience pleasure, there could be things like suicidal ideation. I think that the question of duty of care is really, really raised. And in Johan Hari's book, Magic Pill, he did a survey and found that 47% of adult Americans said that they would take these drugs if they were offered to them. So that is nearly half of the adult population. And I just think that these drugs are coming. They're coming in masses. They are going to be so much more widely available. They're going to be more competitively priced once they come off of patent. They're going to be more accessible. And I liken it to kind of like AI. You can have as much resistance to this personally as you like. I just don't think

you're going to be able to make any change in the fact that these things are going to impact our lives so much oh yeah i absolutely agree with that my only response my only response is that it's not so much about it not coming and that we're all supposed to stick our heads in the sand it's that i don't think that pharmaceuticals should have celebrity endorsements and in this case it's and i think they've gone about it a really kind of sneaky way like we've established it's not the weight loss drugs that has the celebrity endorsement per se it's the access to the weight lost drugs that has the celebrity endorsement. And so that to me, I think blurs the line. It's like, I'm not telling you to go out and get a weight loss drug, but if you've been thinking

about it, here's a really quick and simple way to go and do it. All right. It is time for suck and sweet, our highlight and our low light of the week. Brittany, what's your suck? My suck of the week is, and this is actually, I didn't really think about this, but this is a very interesting tie into the conversation we just had. Delilah is a little bit overweight again. mate I noticed we all made comments last week what has happened do you know what I think's happening she teeters poor Delilah she teeters a couple kilos overweight that's what the vet said has she heard what Serena Williams has been talking about yeah I was like we said one for dogs but she's got to lose a few kilos again but I think she's middle age now and they just

I probably feed her we all feed her the same amount as we always have when she was a couple years younger and they burn it's like us like their metabolism slow down everything changes but she also has multiple people that look after her like obviously Keisha but we have other dog walkers that have her for a few days a week as well when I'm at work and I'm very guilty of it feeding little nachos under the table anyway so you're the only one who's guilty of it I've spoken to the other people we're all like no we don't feed her more than what she's supposed to have breakfast no I fed her half her dinner the night before and half in the morning anyway so she's overweight so that's why I've got to put her on diet which is really hard because she looks at

me with these eyes and I want to give I give a chip sometimes I am the culprit I can't I can't relate to this more because bus has been on a diet now for like almost six months he's yeah he's how's he going yeah he's lost six kilos oh wow yeah he lost a lot well bus is 40 no not he's lost five kilos he was 42 kilos and he's like right down but the vet was like your dog is too fat and because he has his food or did you change it i cut his other leg off yeah he took them off yeah no he's got one leg now because he's such a big dog 42 kilos with three legs the vet was like he's getting old he needs to be kept more underweight because that will help him have a longer life and I was like buddy you're down to you're down to one scoop and a big walk

so all he eats is one scoop of dry food he has one scoop of dry food and then he has his veggies and stuff as well to bulk it out with a little bit of rice yeah but yeah it's not it's it feels like nowhere near enough but he's like the perfect weight now so yeah he doesn't he doesn't do a lot of exercise because he's old and he's got three legs yeah but that shows you how much I feed Delilah. She does so much exercise. Anyway, my sweet is, that's a me problem. I'm working on it. There's this great telehealth company in the States that you could give a call to. I've actually just booked in with them. I wonder if dogs could take a Zempi. No corner cutting here. Let's not try. All right. My sweet is it's baby Maya's first birthday today.

Happy birthday Maya. Yeah. Happy birthday. So I will see her in a couple of days. We're going to have a little, I don't know, I'll probably make her a cake or something, but I'm going to fly up and see her for her first birthday but yeah I just feel like I mean you guys all know my sister Sherry you know baby Maya feels like yesterday that she was born like five weeks preemie she shot straight out and now she's one and I get like what people say when they're like oh it just flies by it really does so that's my sweet of the week she's one well my suck of the week is Sunday's our soccer day with Lola right it's a it's a family packed adventure day I woke up on Sunday and I have no idea why but it happens to me like once a month with this pregnancy

it's like the early days of morning sickness nausea comes back so Sunday I woke up set up in bed and I was like I feel weird got in the shower and then I had this wave of nausea I think maybe I just sleep in a weird angle and I have like a foot in my liver for the entire night or something but I felt so sick and then I started vomiting and I could not stop vomiting for almost 40 minutes and then still had to pull myself together to get to soccer so you know when like hear me out and I don't know whether other people can relate to this and Matt is not an arsehole so like he is a very supportive husband but I think everyone has a bandwidth for their empathy on sickness right and like when you're pregnant you expect your partner to have nine months of unrelenting

empathy for the fact that you're like constantly in pain and constantly uncomfortable and whinging and they it ebbs and flows sometimes they have more sometimes they have less and he's just so used to it now that he's like oh you vomit all the time you're fine it becomes normal it's normal it's like if you get a one-off sickness and you're heaving like it's oh my god I'm gonna look after you but it's like oh you you do it all the time it's become normalized for me now we've been doing this for eight months he literally was like god so annoying he's like we need to go hurry up can you stop anyway so that was my suck and my sweet for the week is actually I feel like I had big sweets I know we're not supposed to double up but I can't go past my baby shower the baby shower I

never wanted that now I'm so glad I had that we didn't go to the only thing is is that I every time I saw a margarita tray come around I was like fuck what I would do what I would do for amagi right now so yeah that was my sweet by far it was just honestly the best day having so many people that i adore in a room together it felt like it but like a wedding because because you know we have like i have like such like different groups of friends but they all know each other and everyone is friends it kind of felt like my hands again is what it felt like except sober and there was no strip of poles which was weird what a shame and i didn't give you a lap dance yeah i missed that i looked i did look forward to the lap dance i'm still waiting you can give it to me today when

you birth i'm gonna give you a that's your push present after my stretch and sweep that you keep offering me it's only one it's a big one package all right that is it from us guys let's get the hell out of here if you loved the episode or you want to weigh in on anything that we discussed at all you can firstly want you can leave comments on spotify we do read them all yeah or you can jump on to our life uncut instagram life uncut discussion group on facebook there's so many ways in which you can, you know, access us and kind of tell us what you're thinking. Access us. And also watch it on YouTube.

If you haven't watched any episodes on YouTube yet, we do have the whole Eps there and it just gives you more. It gives you more of us in three dimensions. All right. Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friends and share the love because we love love.