Life Uncut - The best of THE PICKUP - 12th March

Episode Date: March 12, 2023

It's our weekly round up! The best of the week from our National radio show THE PICKUP. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

community. We pay our respect to their elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. This episode is recorded on Gadigal land of the Aurora Nation. Hi guys, and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Laura. I'm Brittany. I'm Mitch. And this is our radio show. That's not how it goes, but that's what it is. Imagine if that was the jingle for the pickup. Thank God it's not. She We tried to make it the jingling. And that is our radio show. We've got some huge stars on this week, guys.

Yeah, we do. Carly Rae Jepsen hangs out. You know, Carly Rae, this is Carly's big song, and it's actually what Laura attributes to her early teenage weight loss. You do. It was a running song. Oh, my God. Don't all look at me like that.

They're your words. No, I attribute the lemon detox diet to my teenage weight loss. Chronic diarrhea that she had. Yeah, fucking terrible. My mum put me on that as a kid, too. I put so much cayenne pepper on lemon. Cayenne pepper. Do you know what I used to do with lemon?

Now I'm thinking back to those stupid things you used to do. I used to scrub lemon into my skin and my hair because apparently lemon got rid of freckles. And I had freckles and none of my, all my friends had this beautiful, flawless skin and I didn't want my freckles. And I scrubbed my skin dry. It's so acidic. It does not work. I still have freckles.

I used to put it on acne. My oma used to say, put it on your acne. It'll clear you up. And it made it severely cystic. Yes, because it literally erodes it through your skin. Can I just say, none of this is good advice. Don't do anything that we did in our teenage years. Just go and buy some benzoyl peroxide and maybe go for a run

if you're really worried. No, I went all the way to Paddy's Markets in Sydney and my mum made me buy the ballerina tea. Did you guys ever do the ballerina tea? Yes, and it's evil and I'm pretty sure that that's the reason why I'm going to get a colonoscopy in a couple of days. You think? Yeah, it's because I punched ballerina tea when I was a teenager.

Shots of ballerina tea. Is that it? I don't know why. I think I messed myself up with that stuff. Can we stop talking? Let's not look at what happened on the radio show this week. I tried. Ava Max is here.

Sweep It Psycho. She's gorgeous. We love Ava Max. Hang on. Ava Max is here and then Sweep It Psycho is Laura? Or is that? No, no, no. That's the song.

Sorry, sorry. We all are a little bit Sweep It Psycho. This week is a bit cooked, to be honest. Can I just say, both of our guests, the reason why Mitch says that it's attributed to my weight loss as a teenager, it's got nothing to do with that. It's because they were my running playlist, both of these. Yeah, that's why I say it. I'm not being fat-phobic or anything.

I am fat. Okay. Let's leave that one in the past. As I've said on the record many a time. It was in the past. Let's leave it in the past. We also try a delicacy that is making waves, toilet paper. I mean, I was going to leave the cliffhanger like,

what are we going to try that you shouldn't try? Only Laura and I tried. You just threw it out. We sat in the radio booth and we ate toilet paper, and that is pretty much what happened on the show this week. It's been a real highlight, a real doozy. I'm really happy. Plus your kid's being cancelled.

Oh, yeah. Marlee May is going to get me cancelled. No, Marlee May's cancelling herself. She only has herself to blame. But I think she's taking me down with her. Anyway, let's get into it. I'm going to tell you guys about some unusual toilet habits today. Now, not mine.

Oh, sorry. Sorry, that's just Mitch finishing up on the toilet. I've got a microphone in the cubicle. He does that. Coming to us live. It's a long flash, sorry. All right, head in the game, you two. I stumbled across a woman with a very, very unusual addiction

that's developed from being in the bathroom. I don't even want to tell you myself it's so wild. I want you to hear it from her. This is what she's addicted to. My name is Keisha. I'm 34 years old and I live right outside Chicago. And I love eating toilet paper. I started eating toilet paper probably in the sixth grade.

I'm sorry, how? Okay, so I came across this a couple of days ago. This beautiful young woman has an addiction to eating toilet rolls. Now, she eats 75. sheets a day. Is she keeping tabs on it because they're like calorie counted? Well, they're very, very expensive. But she says she loves

the way, when it touches her tongue, the sheet dissolves. It's really soft. It's delicious. Like a wafer. Yeah. Her mum said it's like crack, right? She's never seen a daughter. She'll never go to her daughter and not see her with sheets of toilet paper. She's in the bathroom. She often hides.

No, she walks around everywhere. She has them at all times. But in an ironic turn of events, she prefers two ply she can't have anything more because she's bougie no no because it melts away easier because it's easier to digest because the more toilet paper she eats the harder it is to go to the toilet it's so ironic but this is this is causing her some internal damage well it is so she's trying to wean herself off it but it's a proper addiction she's had her whole life she just says i just love the way it dissolves when it hits my tongue she prefers the two ply but she

has to be weaned off it because it's going to cause big issues. So I want you guys right now to try some toilet paper and tell me what you think. What do you mean? To be fair, I think she's really sold it to me. I have some here. I sound convinced. It's not the expensive stuff. It's straight from the AI. How many plies does that lose?

One ply. It's one ply. It's basically sandpaper at this point. So can you both put it on your tongue? I'm just going to describe it's light and airy. It kind of has a fairy floss consistency. I'm going to peel it in half. It is two ply. This comes from basically a public toilet. Hang on, Mitch, did you pull it Mine's now one pie, and I'm going to count us down from three

and put it on our tongues. Okay, three. I actually feel sick doing this. It's a piece of toilet paper. Can we have five on set? Sorry. Three, two, one. The toilet paper's going to both your tongues.

Oh, Laura's dissolved straight away. Mitch, I can't even look at you. That's disgusting. What is it? Are you loving it? Do you want some chocolate sauce? That's going the wrong way. It's horrible.

Imagine eating 75 pieces a day. Actually, I did like the dissolving bit, though. I hate so much. Mitch, it's on your lips. Mitch, I can't look at you. Spit it out now. I cannot continue the conversation. Can you swallow it?

Okay. Don't swallow it. You'll have a problem with your poop. It's down. It went down. So the verdict is that ARN needs to get better toilet paper? It actually is so awful and the texture is so horrible it makes me want to throw up.

Can I just say? You would go for seconds? Can't have another roll. No, on a serious note, guys, she's been actually advised that if she can't break the addiction because it's so bad for you that she needs to swap out the toilet paper for wet wipes because they're more moist. Surely.

Okay, but no. They're more digestible, yeah. Yeah, but they don't decompose. We've seen them stuck in all the sewer systems across the world. Have you guys ever had a weird addiction or like a habit or something? I used to do something when I was in school, which I think came from stress. I used to pluck individual hairs out of my head.

That's why you've got no hair now. I've got no hair. It's never grown back probably, But I used to, for my hairline at the front, I used to, if I was stressed and I was studying, I would just pull hairs out of my head. You're kidding. Yeah, like real weirdo. I used to, and this put me in the emergency room when I was nine.

I used to get cheese stringers. The cheese stick? Yeah, cheese stick. And I would get two or three of them, wrap them in a little twist, put them in the microwave and then eat the cheese ball. Anyway, when I was about nine, my parents thought I had acute appendicitis. They raced me to the emergency room and they said, we need to operate. We'll do a quick CAT scan.

They put an IV drip in everything just to check it was all good. And they came in laughing and said, you know, you're being discharged. You've got a lump of cheese in your lower arm. And they gave me a nine-year-old horse laxatives and I pooed it out. Oh, that's disgusting. Yeah. I've got photos. Do you want me to show you?

Some more toilet paper for you. I'll have that for you. Probably safer. Ava Max is here. She's in the country. Hi, Ava. Hello. I'm in the country and I'm still on Zoom.

What is happening? I know. I know. Why aren't you here right now? I know why, because you had an absolutely wild performance last night. Oh, my God. It was so much fun. There was so many people.

Truly. It was chaos. So Ava closed out the World Pride celebrations in Sydney at the Domain. And, like, normally at the Domain, Ava, for, like, Aussie context, it's like Christmas carols in the Domain. It's like children in Santa Claus outfits and Koshi. You won't know that reference, but he's nothing like Ava Max. So seeing you up there in the Domain full of 10,000 gay people,

I'm like this is my heaven this is fantastic you were so good it was so fun it was electric it was like I was feeling everyone's energy and I kind of like blacked out it was just so much fun what's it like performing in front of Australian crowds in terms of how do we compare to everyone else around the world are we are we on par are we louder are we rougher what are we y'all are so energetic and loud which is good it's good it's like I don't know like y'all definitely love to party which i can feel and it makes me want to party it's like really fun for me to perform in australia like i absolutely adore i love it was this your first time ever performing in australia that shocked me someone told me that yes for outdoor but i've done like indoor stuff yeah

oh i love that there's a clarification with a roof on no uh but roof off yes 100 i will quickly ask on this though because as a gay person who listens to your album on repeat and every one of your songs i can confirm this he was every time i get into his car you're on well i've Ava, I've spoken to you a hundred times, but I think I've told you before, Salt was my ringtone on my phone at one point. Oh my goodness. Salt is one of my favorites too. So I totally get it. Salt is like a guilty pleasure for me because it was a song that I put out on YouTube first, not even on streaming platforms. Oh, it really is my favorite song you've ever put out up there with Sleepwalker. But quickly, what does it mean to you to have the support from the LGBTQIA plus community? because it feels like we like you are our queen like we rally around you like no one else it's true we we adore you I'm honored and again being at world pride yesterday and being together with

everybody in Australia and being there with so many people you could feel the support I felt the support at least like I felt so loved and and just know that you are all loved back because I my heart grew like so much bigger last night I heard that there was some sort of emergency last night mitch you were saying that the show had to stop there was a medical emergency yeah so i had to legit stop the show because it was kind of scary in the middle of dancing's done um i kept seeing everybody do this and i was like this is definitely not normal and i was like what is happening so i started walking towards the crowd because i was more in the back at the start of the song and then i saw everybody was making like like space and so that's when i stopped it

completely wow and you got next you had to call for an ambulance yeah everyone's okay i think they're good they're all good right everyone's fine yeah everyone's okay thankfully but it was it was scary you know because when you get together in crowds like that you never know your choreography was too hard we were just watching i was just i was there and brit was like is this how hard she goes off normally i'm like ava i was just watching i wasn't there last night unfortunately but i i have watched it online already and it was amazing my question to you is you really went above and beyond there was hair weeping crawling across the ground there was there was like thrusting there were dance moves i didn't even know do you get a say in your dance

routines like do you get to sort of put your input in or do you just have the professionals coming and be like this is what you know look if i'm ever not going all out take away all of my talents and my whatever you want to call it gifts because i don't like it when people don't give it their all when they've been given a gift so for me if i'm on that stage i'm gonna give you my all i can barely jog and speak let alone hair whip and sing like those things oh my god i promise you you can with the adrenaline it's really the adrenaline that gets me going that's one thing we're never gonna know either i sound like a dying cat so obviously that's not for me um so talk to us about the album because heaven and hell i thought was perfection and then you

come out with diamonds and dance floors and you go you look at the single selection and how you choose your singles for your songs i go how do you do that because they're all single they're all like lead singles like sleepwalker is amazing million dollar baby which the girls are obsessed with with that little sample that you put in there like it's just on the moonlight oh yeah yeah you know i'm really just letting whatever song like raise its hand raise its hand at this point because i truly can't decide and i know the fans can tell like they're like hello what's happening it's like i'm letting you guys decide for me right now ghost is kind of kind of raising its hand sleepwalker is dancing's done one of us so those are the top contenders we're gonna see which one's really

gonna go that extra mile now in this album you sampled a little bit of leanne rhymes um can't the moonlight what was the like what was the inspiration for that was it just a song that you have always loved and adored or was it really something that you wanted to weave into this album it was um about it's funny because it's like three words it's a little bit in the dark no but it's just that the rest of the song is new and people think it's the whole song and i'm just like no it's literally in the dark yeah you're like give me a break three notes isn't that crazy but it gives you that nostalgic feeling which i love to bring back like i really do and but you have to be you know i think interpolations have to be done very cleverly i spend a lot of time on making sure

it's great and i think also if it's not the best i kind of just scratch it and i move on to the next wait okay so was there a sneaky um interpolation and get out of my heart was there one was it i feel like there was um well i can't for the life of me work out what it is what is it Kill Bill. Get out, is it? I was there for hours in the car. I'm like, what the hell has she done that's cracking this song? No, but it's like...

Oh, my God. So it must be really nice to know that you can put out a song that people can relate to and it's so emotive. You know, like it really makes people feel things. People obviously cry to your music. They dance, they're happy. But have you ever, do you ever listen back to your own music and cry? Like do you cry to your own songs?

Okay, that is a crazy question. Can I tell you why? because I never have before until one of us one of us I don't even know if I'm gonna be able to perform that without crying or at all like I haven't decided when I'm performing that because I don't think I can I'm not even kidding like I don't think I can it's so personal to me it's about a past relationship and it it kills me like I I cry every time I hear do you find it therapeutic then to call on your when you're writing music or even singing about something that is so personal is it therapeutic to put it into a song or is it something that's really

exposing calling on your personal experiences it is but for some reason this particular song one of us is growing even more emotional to me and it's it's even it's getting worse and i'm just like isn't this supposed to get easier and so like my other songs but this one i've never had it happen like this where i can't even listen to it without tearing up so yes yeah healing isn't linear Ava and you can use that if you want to trademark it I've I've given you that healing isn't linear so if you want to put that into a song that's a beautiful sentiment just going back to this like the fact that a lot of the songs that you've written have been about personal experiences this album is a lot of it breakup songs it is is it a breakup album

it's an album of mourning I started writing this album in the middle of a relationship that wasn't going too well and um it's hard for me because like i almost sacrificed the relationship for art because and i didn't do it intentionally it's just like i was in the studio writing these heartbreak songs and then i was being told that it was hurtful for me to do so but i was writing an album like am i not gonna be honest like i have to be honest i'm not gonna not be honest with my fans so in a way I sacrificed a couple relationships for my music and now I'm single so that's so hard how do you find that like barrier for you then in terms of like what you share publicly and what you keep private in your relationships where does the line sit well this

is exactly why I didn't want to write anything personal because I knew this would happen but that was what I was going through I was going through a turbulent time in a relationship and I was also going to the studio to record so what was I supposed to do I mean I was kind of stuck in a crossroad if that makes sense like I never thought I'd be going through that but um here I am so maybe I'll be single forever I was about to say I was does it does it I don't want to say tarnish but does it change your view of love and what you want from a relationship when you go through something like that so publicly are you just sort of like oh I just can't be bothered to it again no you know it's crazy i grew up when in a family where my parents you know they've been

married a very long time to this day and i grew up knowing like okay that's love love exists and now after being through a couple really difficult relationships long relationships that people don't know i was in um few years each you know and i failed in both of them i think sometimes i'm like is monogamy a real thing it's like i really did try my best and i still failed so i I think looking back, yeah, it is hard to believe that monogamy is real, if that makes sense. I also don't, I mean, like we're getting so off track and deep here. I don't think it's failed.

I don't think fail is the right word. I think you experience something, you live, you learn, you grow. It's provided you some beautiful music. No, but I agree. I've grown so much. I actually, I'm so much stronger than how I was a few years ago. I'm a completely different person. And so I'm grateful for my experiences.

I really am. Guys, it is Internationals Women's Day, and we have been speaking about it on this show quite a bit, but I feel like since becoming a mum to two little girls, for me International Women's Day has a bit more of a different meaning now. And more so than I think it's so nice that we get to celebrate all these high-achieving women,

we get to celebrate the contribution that women are making in the world, but it also makes me think about like what sort of world I want my kids to grow up in. Well, and you and I, we've had many conversations about, we love the fact that International Women's Day is a thing, but I think the meaning behind it has been lost and it's become a bit tokenistic sometimes. I think we really need to re-evaluate what we are actually doing

on this day and why we're doing it. Well, yeah, I mean, like it's so nice to come to work and there's cupcakes and you get a morning tea but, like, what does that actually mean at the end of the day? Totally. And what does that do to celebrate women? Well, I wrote a little letter and that is for my two girls. Marlee May and Lola.

Lola Derby. A little three-and-a-half-year-old and two-year-old. And I guess for me, this was a bit of a reflection as their mum and the things that I want for them on International Women's Day. But not just today. What I want for them every day. I'll read it for us. I can get you some letter-writing music if you want.

Why is it so sad? No, I'll cry. That's a bit sad, isn't it? No, this will make me cry. Okay, sorry, sorry. Okay. Yeah, that's better. All right.

So we're in Hawaii. To Marlee, Mae and Lola, being your mum is the single greatest thing that has ever happened to me. There are so many things I worry about and things that I want to always protect you from but most of all there are things that i want for you i want you to grow up in a world where you not only feel completely equal but you are equal a world where you explore any career any passion or project that you can do any sport because the doors are open to you i want oh it'll make me cry i want you to grow up believing anything daddy can do mommy can too

and so can the both of you you are not better at cooking or cleaning just because you are girls and I hope I have been the example of that I want you to know how incredibly beautiful you both are and that that has nothing to do with the size of anything on your body except for your heart your values as a person has nothing to do with how pretty you are how many Instagram likes you have or followers you have don't ever trust a boy with two phones amen I want you to know that your body is your own and it is totally up to you what you do with it and when and I want you to make mistakes i want you to learn and i want you to be unapologetically you good grades at school aren't the only way into university or a career closed doors can open and now there is absolutely

nothing that you could ever do or say that will make me stop loving you with all my heart oh god well she trumps us what have you brought for international women's day mitch i've just had four of the cupcakes for the women me too i took one for the team i had like 10 oh you're allowed to have as many cupcakes as you want you mitch churi weren't supposed to oh that was really beautiful that was really cute isn't it it's funny because i mean i'm not a mom but since becoming an adult about a year ago um since becoming i mean maybe internally but certainly not by age no since becoming an adult you look at things differently about what your mom or what your parents sacrificed for you or exact or the extent that they went to when you

were young and you had no idea and you're being a spoiled little brat looking back now i'm like wow Like, my mum did so much for me that I just had no idea about. And I guess this is turning to, like, a Mother's Day. Thank you, Mum. Thank you, Mum. I want to really highlight all the incredible women in our lives who have done so much to either who have impacted us, who have gotten us to the place that we are.

And I just think that, you know, it's a day for all women, not just for women who are kicking it in the CEO corporate world. Yeah, amen. Happy International Women's Day, everyone. Happy International Women's Day, everyone. Happy IWD. There's a whole bunch of stale cupcakes at the studios. Oh, don't act like there's leftovers.

You ate them all. Yeah, they're coming home with me if there's any left. Guys, guess who's here with us now? She's in Australia performing all around the country. She's a global superstar. We adore her. Carly Rae Jepsen's on the line. Hi, Carly.

Do you know, I just feel like, I just feel so lucky to be here and live out my dreams and meet people that I've listened to for so long. So I'm just like, first, I'm going to get the fangirl out of the way. I'm fangirling Carly. second of all I want to say congrats on the latest album The Loneliest Time where did that come from in terms of I know you wrote it and started to come together in isolation in COVID but do you have aspects in there of physically feeling lonely from a breakup or was it purely just when you were in lockdown well I've always been a little fascinated by the

the theme of loneliness because I think the coolest thing about when you're really lonely is it causes like these chain reactions you don't just like stay in that place and I've definitely experienced loneliness being a touring artist pretty much my whole life you're kind of you have these like accelerated like you know high energy moments of performances but at the end of the night you're in these like different countries and these hotels by yourself and I've always sort of not um totally known what to do with that I sometimes think that when I look at this album COVID sort of really highlighted that emotion for me I'm like what do I do in isolation on my own And how can I find joy in that time?

Because, you know, it's really powerful to not just be frightened of your loneliness. And so this is what the concept of the whole album was. And I think loneliness can make you really brave and courageous and do some crazy things. Like, I think joining a dating app can come from loneliness. There we have Beach House. So I know it sounds a little bit like a downer title, but I felt like it was more than that. And that's what excited me about the challenge of The Loneliest Time. What's it like taking something like, I mean,

speaking about loneliness and speaking about your own personal experiences, that is something that is so personal. And then taking that and putting it out onto such a public platform, performing it in front of thousands and thousands of people. What does that feel like? It's actually quite liberating. I think that what you realize as an emotion that you have is probably shared by lots of people, especially when you think it's a private thing that only you have gone through. You realize that that's not actually the case. I think things like love, things like loneliness, longing and all of these emotions I think what I'm tapping into as a songwriter is where we connect and meet in the middle about it so it's no longer just like my song it's like your song

and we're kind of singing it together and that's what I'm hoping to create in performances as well Carly this is a really obscure thing I'm about to say but I have a really good metric for how how big and how successful an artist is because I live right around the corner from the theater you performed at last night you're currently going around Australia doing shows and I can Engage how big the artist is by how long it takes me to get a car park at my bloody house. I came home from work last night. I had a barbecue chicken in the front seat.

You're like, Carly's in town. He had to walk like 10 kilometres. I couldn't get a park for God's sake. And I could hear, what happens, Loz? We reach the moon from the theatre down the street. And then this is all your fault. But it's a good thing because it means you're a superstar. And my barbecue chicken was cold, but it's okay.

People adore you. These shows are going off. My boyfriend was there. he had the best time of his life um are you loving the Aussie audiences I mean they just seem to love you oh thank you first of all sorry about your chicken but that's so sweet he's still he's wings and all um yeah I I will say in all honesty we did come off stage and we know we sometimes separate after we do our like kind of group out because I have an incredible band with me just so you know and some of them have been with me for like over 10 years now so they're like

my family and um incredible backup singers like a really good team um and once we all divide after our like final little bow of the performance we don't really see each other till we come downstairs and you kind of come downstairs and there's one of two reactions that's sort of like oh i'm sorry i missed that cue or oh what do you think about this and you get heady about the things you want to fix for the next show or you come off and you're like good show that was great last night we came off stage but everyone met kind of running into each other and hugging and being like did you feel that that crop was wild that was so surprising so there was a real appreciation for the energy that sydney brought it was it was really wild well speaking about lonely it seems like you are not

lonely at the moment you are dating a grammy award-winning music producer do you work together or is that like a line in the sand where you're like we're not crossing this we're not lovers by night and colleagues by day well it's funny because we actually met um the good old-fashioned way at work you know and we were we were working on a song together um so that's sort of how our relationship was born in a weird way and there's an intimacy i think in any songwriting session um in terms of you kind of are burying your souls and trying to like get to the bottom of some sort of emotion together and figure out how to like you know put it to words into music so there was a friendship and intimacy born there and then i think later on we started dating and now yeah

to answer your question we we do write we write more for the joy of it together I think at the end of the day he loves writing I love writing we're not always thinking about if it's for work for versus if it's just because um that's how we we like to kind of take in the world and take in our experiences so we we do write a lot he brought a guitar actually he's with me here in Sydney and we've been working uh on some stuff just with our little travel guitar that we bought in New York so if you if you're writing songs together do you try and like slip in subliminal messages in there like i really wish you'd pick up your socks off the floor i don't think that that's very subliminal what if we name the next album take the bins out yeah it's like i think that's

pointed at me um did he did he pull out his grammys in an argument he's like well babe you know the grandma oh yeah i mean he could he's got six of them i mean it's just like ridiculous yeah no he definitely could but he hasn't tried that tactic yet yeah but you're like cool i have 1.8 billion views on youtube speaking of tiktok carly um the success of your music on tiktok people love you on tiktok call me maybe he's been massive on tiktok so is the loneliest time do you think that do you guys write music you and your team to target towards a tiktok demo or is it just pure luck that they um go so big on the app um well i'm sorry i don't mean to like laughed during my answer but i feel like i have to give you some insight to like who i am inside

and who i am inside is like a 99 year old grandmother so like tiktok and me not immediate friends i didn't really understand it and so it's like i have my team over in the corner kind of like laughing at the idea that i would have like been as strategic enough to like actually write a song for tiktok when i don't understand the platform whatsoever the fact that like also if you were to look at what song from my album took off on TikTok, it was a four and a half minute long opus with like a seven part string section. And they took this like little like bridge part where I was just like casually like half singing, half talking about going to the moon. And it's so hilarious to me. I think it's hilarious to Rufus Ringwright as well, who is my duet partner in the

song. Because both of like, he's the same way. He's like, my daughter is helping me with the format and we're both like I have no idea how this happened. It was funny also when it was starting to get more viral because he would text me he's like I think we're going viral on TikTok and I'd be like what does it mean? Yeah so that's the honest answer I have no idea. Oh look there's nothing like a bit of mum shaming in the world is there? Oh we see it every day don't we? It's just oh well you don't notice it because you're not a mum but I notice it online I see it in the forums I see it on TikTok. Now, there's a mum who has sparked some very furious debates

because she has admitted, she has told everyone, she even made a TikTok about it, that she likes to keep her kids on a leash. I'm anti-leash. Sorry, I'm going out there. I think leashes aren't for kids. They're for dogs and they're for cats if you're into that. I am pro-leash. And I don't have kids, by the way.

I think I used to be anti-leash before I had my own children, and now that I have two toddlers, I understand. I get it. I understand the leash. But prior to that, I was like, oh, that's some sort of like, that's a horrible thing to do to your child. Well, here is some information. You guys might not know this, but I used to be a nanny for a year

in Italy and Greece. That was my job. You've done it all. You've done everything. Yeah. So I was a full-time nanny and I had two kids that I had to have on leashes. And now when I say I have to have them, it was thoroughly suggested to me that this is what happened.

And let me say, when I first got it, I was like, I can't put this, I can't walk around with this kid on a leash. Wait, did the parents give it to you and they, like, leashed my child? Yeah, and it was the best thing. Now, I'll tell you why. I was a nanny on yachts. I was a yacht nanny for really rich families. Now, the reason you would have them on a leash is you're always around water.

When you're on a boat, water. When you're docking, they're always running along the piers and stuff. So the kids were quite little. You put them on a leash. Now, it's not, Mitch, I know what you're imagining. It's not like a studded collar that goes around their neck like a dog and then you put the leash on. I'm picturing a retractable one.

No, they're like cute backpacks. They're cute backpacks. So they've got life jackets on and then a terrycloth backpack with a leash attached. Because what it means is, and it happened a few times, and I was so grateful, they'd be running around like a two-year-old does, they trip on a cobblestone, and you've got the leash, so as they're falling, you just give it a little bit of a pull

and it's like a full safety net. It just pulls them back up and they don't even hit the ground. Oh, and you know the best part is you can attach to the handle of a little poo bag, so if they poo, you can just pick up the poo. Yeah, okay. Well, this month, she's based in the US. Her name's Alexis, and she took to TikTok to share that she keeps her child safe by putting a kid leash on him.

And anyway, this has amassed now 12.9 million views, which is not a small sum of numbers. And look, 50% of people on there are understanding and the other 50% are saying that it is incredibly cruel. It is not cruel. Yeah, it's not. I don't think that this is cruel. I think my opinions, like I said, have changed so much

since becoming a parent. And if you have a child that's a runner, which is a very real thing, they just, as soon as they get out of the car or they're, you know, you're not watching them, they will run. And kids have very bad perception about road safety, about where they're going, and they'll just run. Would you ever leash either of your two girls? Lola, for sure.

Yeah, that kid's leashable. Yeah, she needs it. You know the only bad thing about it is that after a while, the little turds that are running around like crazy, they get too used to the leash and they have no concept of danger. My little kid, Lou, was running and throwing himself around because he knew that nothing was going to happen because I'd pull him back up.

So they just get a bit big for their boots. Is this going to be in like a couple of years? You know how there's got breastfed babies and then formula babies? Are they going to be leashed and unleashed adults growing up, you think? I don't think you need to. Maybe you need to put your boyfriend on a leash. That's about it. What's the long-term impacts?

Oh, yeah, they can't stay in relationships. Yeah, terrible. No, yeah, yeah. They hate going on walks. They've all got bad scoliosis in the back because of the leash. I think we can go next step and do a hands-free leash. You know the ones that just go around your waist? I have it for my dog, Delilah.

Oh, now that I can get around. Yeah, that's good. Guys, my child, Marley May, she's three and a half. She goes to daycare. She's so cute. What's wrong with her? She's gorgeous. She calls me Uncle Mitch.

She's trying to get me cancelled. The kid is trouble. That's a big call, Laura. Okay, so I mean. What do you mean? Is she writing tweets in your name? Oh, yeah. Yeah, she's like posting like cancer culture.

It's all rife with the three-year-olds these days. No, she goes to daycare, right? And every day at daycare we get sent like a report. So she's in the three-year-old kindy group and each day we get a report from the school teacher. It's very sweet. It gets sent out to all the parents and it's like a little update on what's been happening in class, what they've been doing

with their friends. Like today they learnt this or they did this. Totally, and it's a communal one. So every parent gets the same one and every child is listed on it. So I get this message from an anonymous mum who I've never met before on Instagram and she says, Hi Laura, our children go to the same daycare. I found this really funny and I think your daughter's trying

to get you cancelled so they're doing this word association game right basically it's like they get shown a word in a picture book and then they have to come up with a different word that relates to that word okay so they're shown a dog and then they have to say cat or something no so dog and it might be wolf so it has to be another word that you can use to replace that word so basically the word was was wide so they had to come up with another word to replace the word wide and it was about a box it was a wide box so anyway and one little kid says high another little kid says massive another child writes tall this is all listed in this little screenshot i've been given little alice says giant uh balthazar didn't even know there was a kid at the school named

balthazar but it is he says enormous because he's a genius uh another one says giant again And then Marlee May at the very end says, just fat. Just fat. But I know the tone that she would have said it. Did she say just or did she just write fat? No, she wrote just fat. Oh, wow. And I know the tone.

Two words. Because the tone would have been like, you're all idiots for thinking of all these other words. Why don't you just use the word just fat? And I thought that maybe, because we don't talk about size in the house. We don't say skinny fat. We're very, very conscious of this. So part of me is like, okay, well, where has she heard this from? this is a one-off maybe it was phat no like yeah cool it's a cool box that is a cool box no so i

thought maybe this was just a one-off anyway didn't say anything about it had a little chuckle we walked into the supermarket the other day and we were going up to where the fresh food is and there was a man there unpacking it and marley my sweet little innocent darling little girl turns to me and says as loudly as she possibly can hey mummy look at that man and he has a fat bottom at least it was a man yeah is it better i think so yeah i think it is a little bit i don't know what you do in this situation okay i want to know firstly give us a call if you have had a child who's trying to get you cancelled what have they said what have they done yeah but i also think like what do you do in this situation because you don't want to reprimand them because that's even

more embarrassing it's more embarrassing for the person that they've just said it in front of but How do you navigate this situation? I think you just say, I'm so sorry about that, and then pull her away and we say, we don't use that word. We don't call people that. Okay, well, you're a better parent than I am. I'm not a parent. I do have a dog that has to lose a couple of kilos.

Kirstie's cold. Kirstie, how brutal is your kid? Okay, so I have one three-year-old, and because I also work full-time, she usually sees me when I have makeup on, like a full face of makeup all dressed up. So over the Christmas holidays, however, I was not wearing makeup. And one day she comes up to me and she goes, Mummy, what's wrong?

I said, what do you mean? Nothing. And she goes, your face looks weird. Are you sick? Because I wasn't wearing any makeup. Do you know, I get that as an adult. When I used to turn up to the hospital for work with no makeup on, people used to be like, oh, are you unwell?

I was like, no, I'm feeling fine. Yeah, but that's from adults. That's worse. That's why it's worse. That's my point. How brutal was your kid, Fee? My kid, when I was pregnant with my daughter, well, my second daughter, my daughter was three years old

and we were having coffee with a friend and she was patting me on my stomach going, there's a baby in there? And I said, yeah, there's a baby in there. And then she patted, like, and I said, you know, with some people who have big bellies, have babies in them. And she turned to my friend and patted her on her belly and said, is there a baby in there too?

And there wasn't pregnant. Oh, no. Oh, I feel like that's common. I think that's a common one for kids. Kids are assholes. And my friend was mortified. I can imagine. If that happened to me, I mean, I've got a belly.

I'd just roll with it and go, yeah, twins. Oh, no, don't confuse them. No, they're going to be brutal to me. I'm going to confuse them and really ruin their whole perception of the world. Whole entire life. Yeah, just end it.