Talking Shit with a Yank & a Brit - 11. Weird Little Snake

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

This week we're talking icks that turn us off, comparing our healthcare systems, another Am I The Arsehole conundrum and the unsolved mystery of who pissed in the beer stein...Subscribe, rate and follow! If you want to get in touch and share your stories, questions or opinions, email us at [e-mail] order your new BlendJet2 with 12% off and free 2 day shipping, visit https://zen.ai/tspod12

Like one guy kind of seemed like a weird little snake and one guy seemed like this little mole. Rodent. Welcome. It's Talking Shit with a Yank. And a Brit. I'm Kate. And I'm Gemma. I know who you are. Oh, sorry. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Yeah, grand. A little bit tired, but pretty good. You look like you're glowing. I am burnt. You look like you're glowing. I am burnt. You look just like you have a nice kind of glow and, you know, like a little rose, but you don't look like a lobster or anything.

Oh, your nose is a little pink. Look at my nose. Wear sunscreen. God. I did, but I'm still burnt. You have to put it on more than once. Yeah, I didn't do that. I put it on once and hoped for the best. I've taken to wearing hats now. My dermatologist was like the best thing to do. And this is why you'll see dermatologists and hats is just wear a hat and sunscreen, but also a hat.

I do. I do wear a hat. I just didn't take a hat with me this weekend. So I had no choice but to sit in the sun and turn into a lobster. What'd you do? I had a gig on Friday night, a lovely pub down in Brighton, went very well, good crowd, everyone said it was great. I enjoyed it.

Thank you for saying that, I appreciate your feedback. I know I didn't come say hi, but I was there. Oh, was that you in the back corner? Mm-hmm, wearing the hat. Just with the sunglasses on. And then last night I went glamping at a vineyard. Fun. Which was really fun. Weather's been lovely.

Yeah, I was going to ask if the weather must have been nice because glamping in English rain seems like it would suck probably would yeah but yeah you still do it though you still gotta do it otherwise when would you exactly our lives would come to a halt if every time it rained i've heard that like in like sunny places like la and california and things like when it rains everyone's like i can't do anything because it's raining i i feel like that's true though i would only really know just based on like there's a podcast i listen to i think you know my favorite murder sometimes we'll talk about how it's been raining and it's like a big fucking deal for a couple different

reasons because it hadn't rained in so long and maybe there was like a drought and because you can't do anything i think it's probably similar to in the states that don't get snow get snow and they yeah lose their collective minds. As we do here when it snows. Yeah. And that's okay. No judgment, but we get it all. So we have to deal with it all.

Has it gone now? Has it finally gone? Oh, no, there's still a little snow outside. No, just kidding. It's unbearably hot now. Oh one extreme to the other that's what yeah yeah there was like a very short window pun intended where we could like open our windows and not have our air conditioning on um just to get like some fresh air into the house And then it was just all of a sudden way too hot. Like I would look at our thermostat and it would be 89 degrees in the house.

And it's not even that hot outside. So, yeah. And also, you know, that's when all of the allergens came into our house and I had my fun skin reactions. And then there were also these, I think it was in Canada, these forest fires, which the smoke was visible in the air here and even as far as Sioux City

because my friends were talking about it down there. So it was kind of like, oh, we should probably close up the house so we're not just inhaling all of the smoke. Yeah, probably a wise decision. No, I liked it. It's good for you. It's good for you. It's good for the skin, all that ash.

Yep. So I'm glad to hear you had some good weather and a nice weekend. I didn't do a great deal because I'm kind of behind on work. So I spent some time doing that. And oh, well, I made a TikTok page for a podcast. Oh, say more i will uh don't anticipate a lot of original tiktoks of me doing things or of jemma doing things but maybe no promises that we won't either well you're not gonna do dances i mostly just because i haven't used TikTok in any way other than to just view TikToks that I'm not sure I really know all that goes into. I mean, people do some really elaborate ones.

I know. So maybe. But people send me videos. Yeah. Like, that's why I ended up downloading the app app because it was just like easier to view things but um you know our account number our name number is it's talking shit with a yank and a brit that's like you'll see it in our little image thumbnail for our show but the at is at t-s-w-a-y-a-a-b or in other words the first letter of each word of our show lovely little acronym

to swayab swayab yeah go to our to swayab page yep follow us and you will see things i will post things um it's the same for twitter as well the same like at symbol. So awesome. There's that. Also shortly be an Instagram page for the pod, which is not not yet live, but it's pending. So once I've done that, I'll put it in the show notes. I would say that that means that people will not be inundated from our personal accounts for a podcast. But that'd be a lie. I'm still going to inundate people on Instagram anyway. Great.

Well, how exciting. That was, I think, probably my most, what I was most productive around. Yeah. Cool. I appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for your service well you do for the listeners at home jemma is the the brains and the artist behind the editing of our podcast posting of it

um the hilarious reels and clips and teasers for our episodes. So she basically does all of the work. I just show up. I thought I could maybe pull my weight a little bit. Do some fucking work, Kate. Fine. I will. Fine work. So you sent me something interesting earlier today

that I thought maybe would be a good topic of conversation for us today and it was specifically this clip of someone interviewing folks was it in london do you know or somewhere in england i don't know somewhere in england yeah about how much things cost in the u.s specifically relating to like medication and necessary medical care like ambulances and stuff and I think the thing that's was not a surprise to me but was pretty illustrative of the differences in our health care systems was the folks getting interviewed's reaction to the price of an inhaler and the price of um insulin epi was it epi pens or insulin uh epi pens i think yeah so it was the it was guessed the cost of um god i've just had a mind blank what was the first one inhaler like yeah so yeah guess the price of an inhaler in

the u.s um and for for those listening in the uk it was 350 dollars i think it was a range but yeah 250 to 350 and the first girl was like 100 and the guy was kind of like oh you already kind of have an idea about this but it's higher so um and epi pens that i actually don't oh right okay which are life-saving yeah and insulin too that's the thing i could speak to is like i've heard i don't need insulin but i've heard about it is like people. Insulin is so expensive that people have like had to ration it or go without and have died. Like, yeah, children have died. People have died because of it.

And that's even with, I think, insurance covering it. Yeah. Wow. Because insurance is like just kind of the I think the biggest issue. Yeah. Wow. Because insurance is like just kind of the I think the biggest issue. And then the ambulance one, which was like two thousand to twenty five hundred to call because the guy had asked. It's like a hundred dollars. No, sir. It's cheaper to get a taxi. Yeah. Surely.

I guess the taxi is not going to be like hooking you up to life saving equipment, though. So hopefully you don't need that. Never know. Could be a doctor moonlighting, you know. I think though people have like they're in public, something happens to them. Someone calls an ambulance and they're like, I decline this because I can't afford it. So I will get myself to the hospital somehow. And I think that's if their ability to like say that. Some people might not and they get there and they're like fuck that's going to be expensive yeah it makes me

really I mean I know like obviously you guys have insurance which covers it but not everyone does but it's not even something we think about here in the UK because of our NHS, the national healthcare system. Can you talk about that generally, like how it works, what it does, how it's paid for? Yeah. So it's essentially our healthcare system is, it's funded by general taxation and national insurance contributions. So we all basically get taxed out of our pay packet every month a certain amount, which is then contributed to the NHS, basically. And also what goes into it is people paying for things like prescriptions and dentist fees, things like that.

So you can go to a dentist on the NHS, but mostly our dentists are privatised. So a lot more expensive. So that's how it's all paid for so it's kind of it comes out of our pay packet before we even see it um the amount you pay depends on how much you earn um and that's how our health care is funded so it's it's not something you even think about really it's like thank god for the nhs it's fucking brilliant you go, you have to go to the doctor for your annual lady exam, right? That we have to do because we're special. Yeah. And you basically don't, you walk out no bill.

You don't have a copay. You don't have, like, if you pick something that the doctor recommends that maybe isn't like something you do every time you don't have to pay that like there's not oh okay so everything's covered everything's covered birth control the checkups any tests um anything like that the only downside of it is because the NHS is stretched um and obviously you know procedures and and certain scans and tests are expensive so you know there are cases where if something's wrong they might not necessarily go to the most um like the test that could find the results the quickest you know what I mean like so if someone had like a stomach pain they wouldn't necessarily like the test that could find the results the quickest. You know what I mean?

Like, so if someone had like a stomach pain, they wouldn't necessarily go like straight to a CT scan. They do an ultrasound first because it's much cheaper. And so it can take longer sometimes to diagnose things. Well, that's true here too. Yeah. But in general, it's, you know, it is great. Like, yeah like yeah you break your arm get an ambulance for free uh go to a and e and they'll plaster you up off you go is there so there's pros and cons to every system right you said it's stretched and that could be because there's so many people and not

enough providers. That could be because there's so many people who aren't paying in because of unemployment or age or whatever, right? Are there things that you have to like wait for if it's not an emergency or is there like a a like you can't get an appointment for a particular thing until you know three months away or like do you is that a thing yeah so I mean serious things such as cancer things like that are generally pretty quick but I know that the pandemic put wait times back a lot and there's people that have been waiting like two years for operations yeah um they probably prioritize like who like life or death at this point right yeah yeah exactly um so yeah there

can be long wait times especially for things like like, like mental health. I know. I think again, it's like a two year wait to see a therapist or a counselor. Um, so obviously people have to go private for that really. If you want to speak to someone, which is a bit shit. Um, but yeah, it's lack of, lack of resources. I think, I mean, I'm no expert. Um, so if I'm getting I mean, I'm no expert. So if I'm getting this wrong, please do tell me, listeners.

Silas. Silas, help. But I think Brexit had a big effect on it. Like we lost a lot of doctors and nurses because of that. Also, we pay our doctors and nurses terribly. So there's just a real lack of people training to be doctors and nurses now. You tend to get the higher ups in the NHS, like sort of the senior management or whatever they may call them, get paid a lot of money to make decisions.

But then the people actually doing the work don't get paid a lot and there's been loads of doctors and nurses strikes recently um to try and increase their pay which they fucking should i mean just looking at the pandemic they had to work all through that and they were absolutely exhausted and burnt out and still are and they're getting paid peanuts well and i think people think like oh being a doctor you're gonna make a tidy sum right and the problem is is it's that's them pushing doctors and nurses to go into private health care because they get paid a lot more um and in my opinion i think this is our government's plan because the Tories want to privatize the NHS

because they can make a shitload more money from it and I think they're secretly letting that happen so that the NHS falls on its knees um and we don't have it anymore that was going to be because you referenced private so what i'm interpreting is that there are providers out there in the health care field who don't like like they don't cut aren't included in the nhs so if you went to see them you'd be paying out of pocket but yeah is there also private insurance that you can like get yeah yeah yeah okay yeah so you can take out healthcare insurance again i guess it probably works much the same as your system does um and some employers give healthcare insurance as well um it's quite rare but yeah yeah um and you'll get obviously a faster treatment and um yeah a little bit more in-depth investigations into what's wrong

and things like that but yeah i i think it's great like i mean i pay for my pill now just because it's quicker to order it online but before before that, I'd never had to pay for birth control or anything like that. You just go and see your doctor. They do a little checkup. Here you go. Lovely job, Lee. But yeah, it is like the GPs,

which are under the NHS, they're like really stretched. Like for example, in my town, the problem is, is they're building loads of new houses and things and growing towns without putting the infrastructure in to deal with it so my local gp are now not taking any new patients so it's like okay so then where do those people go who need exactly someone to yeah um and you just like you can't get an appointment

for like weeks or you have to call up at 8 a.m be on hold for like an hour to try and get an emergency appointment it's a bit crazy at the moment so i remember there was like i saw i think it was on reddit it was a question of like what do you think would happen if like the US and or the UK like swapped healthcare systems? And the response was like, but like the either country or both countries would riot, right? Because we, as a country here have this kind of very, um, I think it's like two different, it's a dichotomizing subject anyways, where it's like, people think that nationalized healthcare would be better. And everyone's like, we're notized health care would be better and everyone's like

we're not communists and look at the all the countries i have and blah blah blah so um you know we have i think this is where i can't speak to a lot of different scenarios and x like expertise in some of the political stuff of it all, but because I've always been blessed with being able to have private insurance, like my parents carried it. I was covered on it until I was like 26. And then every job I've had, my employer offered subsidized insurance. So like they pay a portion, I pay a portion pre-tax, comes out of my paycheck, much like NHS. And it's always been pretty decent insurance too. Though, you know, to cover Sean and I, you know, there might be something called a deductible, which means like we have to pay that out of pocket first before insurance covers it. And Sean, like nothing infuriates him more than like having to pay like we do out of our paycheck and then have to still pay when we go to the doctor, you know, which I get.

And then when we get the bill, because he, you know, not to give too much information, but like there was he had a health issue and then like the bill afterwards. He was and I was like, oh, that's not that bad. All things considered. And he's like, what? That's not that bad all things considered and he's like what that's not that bad and I was like yeah I mean I'm glad I have good insurance because it would have been a lot more than that and he was just so horrified but I get it because of where he came from and what that looked like and you know we're both generally healthy people so the stuff that I get care for whether it's my like lady stuff or just like a

general like visit to the doctor, normally I don't like, I don't have to fork over my card for anything. And, um, you know, my, my, any medication is usually requires a deductible too. So like we have like in office visits and, and stuff like that as a deductible medication as a deductible too. So like we have like in-office visits and stuff like that as a deductible. Medication as a deductible. It's complicated. It really is. And at some point, I'm just kind of like, whatever. So we have this thing called a health savings account that takes money out of my each paycheck. Also pre-tax, I think. But each year I get the full amount that I elect to have. So if I pick $2,000, I'll get the $2,000 immediately available to me to use for healthcare expenses at the first of the year, but it'll be deducted on my paycheck over the course of the

year, right? Rather than all at once. So that's nice, which means that we might have like, you know, $2,000 to spend on, you know, kind of something more expensive if need be. And, you know, we also, like we have three different insurances. We have like our healthcare, we have our dental, and then we have vision. They're not all the same. All right. Okay. Vision. They're not all the same. All right. Okay. Vision and dental are not super expensive. The actual health insurance can be. We just switched over with my job, so it's kind of cheap right now. Originally, it was like $300

and some dollars a month or a paycheck actually for both Sean and I, which is kind of high, but it's also the most expensive plan because that was just, you could go anywhere. You don't have to go to a doctor that's in network or a specific facility that's another thing in network and out of network um but the vision's like eight dollars a month and dental's a little bit more but the other thing that always kind of makes me laugh and I think is probably stereotypes both of our countries have about the other is like our weird obsession with teeth and dentists and stuff like that and what's available and then the joke that like Brits always have horrible teeth here right yeah uh so but we you know we go to the dentist we can go like twice a month for cleanings and like that's

when they do x-rays, anything else. But you can also go if your mouth hurts and you just need to get in. Right. That's all covered. So I guess maybe that's like the difference because obviously we have the NHS for health care. But we have to pay for dentistry. That puts people off doing it. And maybe that's why we've got shitty teeth.

that puts people off doing it and maybe that's why we've got shitty teeth it is interesting to me though because like i firmly believe that like mouth health really impacts the rest of your body too you know well it can lead to like you know heart disease and yeah and so like an ounce of what is that an ounce of prevention is worth something of, I don't remember the phrase. Petty in the book. Bird in the hand, two in the bush. I don't know. Whatever. You guys all know what I'm saying.

But like the preventative care really I think is cheaper in the long run because if you are going to the dentist when there's like a major issue. And I think this is true here too some things won't get covered like my dentist told me you're really you you must be stressed a lot because I can tell that you clench your you clench and I'm like yeah I think I think I do clench it like clench or grind my teeth at night and they're like you should get this mouth guard and I was like great no that's not covered that would be like eight hundred dollars and I'm like why if they covered that now I probably won't have issues down the road that they will have to cover yeah you know are they doing that on purpose so that maybe then have to get further work done down the line maybe but like that doesn't benefit the insurance, you know, because the insurance is the one that has to pay out for the work I need done.

The dentist, I suppose, who's telling me to get this thing so I don't need work down the line would maybe be the one getting the money. But then they wouldn't be telling me to get this thing. Right. True. OK, so for exclusions then. thing right true okay so four exclusions then so like obviously i remember watching breaking bad you know he gets cancer and can't afford the cover or can't afford the treatment so that's why he starts cooking up meth which is a very reasonable rational way to go about it i think yeah we'd all go down that route that or selfie pic which is also a very viable option um so is that like an issue do

can people get cancer and not be able to do anything about it like how does that work if you don't have the cover in place will they still treat you so I do think that is true I think that you know someone could have really garbage insurance that either might not cover everything or have a really high deductible because like you could have insurance but it could say you have to pay ten thousand dollars out of pocket before we cover anything and it might be like I'm I will never reach that because A, I can't afford that. And B, I might just not ever need that. But by the time I do need something, I'm going to have to pay $10,000 and then insurance will cover it. I can't remember

the details specifically for Breaking Bad, but he was a teacher. So my guess is he probably did have some insurance and maybe it was just not super great, like what I was just describing. I do think, though, there's a difference between treatment and then life-saving care. via ambulance or kind of on your own and you you're they need to save your life they will and then like you will just get billed that but i think also because they can't deny life-saving treatment then they also accept that they're like there's some things that are just going to be written off and you're not gonna to be able to pay it. They're not going to get money from this, but they still have to. They have to provide life-saving care.

But if you show up and you're like, I need chemo, they might be like, well, you're going to have to pay for it. And they'll do it and you'll get billed afterwards, right? And then you might, but... Okay, cool. Yeah, so that answers one of my questions I had because obviously I wondered what would happen if you didn't have any health care insurance um and you ended up in hospital like so I remember I used to watch scrubs a lot and there were you know

storylines on that where someone came in and needed something and they didn't have any insurance and so they doctored the paperwork or just put it you know through without anyone knowing about it and things like that like would there be ways around it or would they just build a person at the end yeah so like in my own experiences of just having to like be in the hospital for whatever reason like you get the care and then the person comes in afterwards and is like talking about like do you have insurance you know do you need financial resources blah blah blah and for me it was always just like yep here's my insurance you know so I've never had to really worry about it I also haven't had to like go to the hospital for a lot of things it's usually just like i'm super sick right now please help me yeah um but they always have that like kind of financial person come in

at the end like i remember a relative of mine needed stitches when he was with me and i took him and like we basically just went to the one downtown which is also i think probably where a lot of folks who are lower income or maybe don't have insurance go because I think they're kind of like the hospital that has the resources and maybe can cover stuff for people. And he was just like, yeah, here's my insurance. And we left. And the woman was like, oh, God, that was super easy. So but I think for like scrubs and stuff, some of it might not be actual the actual reality. But they're going to do it because they can't deny people life-saving coverage.

But they might not keep them in the hospital even if they're like, it would be better if you stayed overnight. Or people might just say, I don't want to because I can't afford this. But I do think there's some financial resources that can be available. I very much think some people just don't pay their medical bills and then either like they don't pursue it or it goes to collections and then you have kind of this default on your credit, which is also stupid because some people might want to like try to buy a house or something and they can't because they've got that poor credit because of it and it's just because they were dying and needed it it sucks though because like that's the other reason why health care

costs are driven up is because of all the people who can't afford it and then they can't but also then insurance it's like it's very unethical insurance and the way it works with our system. This is again, not something I'm fully informed on, but I just remember hearing stories about like, I got ibuprofen from my doctor in the hospital and it was on my invoice, like $6,000 for the thing I can go to the gas station and get for two. Yeah. That's crazy. Fucking hell. And also, I guess, like, you have the big pharma influence as well, whereas we, because of the NHS, don't have that. We, you know, our NHS will buy the drugs at an agreed contracted price there's no one trying to sell the next next big thing or like you know promote them to doctors um so i guess that must have quite an effect on it it does and i think that like you said earlier your theory about, you know, the leadership trying to get rid of the NHS.

I think there are similar theories with some truth to it for us too, and that it's all just about money. It's like the big pharma, lobbying, politicians getting, you know, having vested interests in things. And that's why there's like not this push to make health care more accessible or cheaper. It's kind of a battle between the Dems and the Republicans. And like doctors getting reps from medical, you know, or, you know, pharma companies saying like, do this thing. That's kind of how we got the opioid crisis was from big pharma pushing these things and then doctors just like have all the drugs you know there's doctors out there who will just push those things and so I spoke to Sean the other day and he said he had a dental issue that he had to go in for like an emergency one and they gave him some crazy strong addictive painkillers that he didn't want or need

that's so funny you say that because that one is not really considered the most addictive one oh really it's it it can be but it's it's a mixture of it's hydrocodone and it's mixture of if i remember correctly like tylenol and like kind of an opioid or maybe an opiate light, but people abuse it for sure. But it's definitely not the highest level one. And yes, it's a very common one to get after a dental procedure here. And I think he didn't like them. You know, he had them in the past when he had to get like wisdom teeth out or something and just did not make him feel good. And they gave it to him again. And he was just kind of like'm not I'm not gonna take these I don't like them I don't like how they make me feel and also like I don't know if he felt like he had enough pain exactly like

shouldn't they judge that like before potentially giving out addictive opioids to people yeah like that's mad that's also another thing like I, I think the British view of America is that, like, everyone's, like, majorly over-medicated out there. But again, it's, you know, it's the cultural difference that they won't give us unnecessary drugs because it costs the NHS money to do so. because it costs the NHS money to do so. Whereas, yeah, I mean, I've read stories of like kids being like super medicated really unnecessarily. And like, obviously, you do have a huge opioid crisis. Yeah, it's interesting because I think there are doctors out there who very much want to not jump straight to medicating people right away, right? Especially if it's in terms of pain.

I think for kids, we're talking about like kind of psychotropic meds, like ADHD medication and stuff like that. And I agree. I think that there has been this like pendulum shift from, you know, kind of ignoring things that need to be addressed to now, like, just kind of pathologizing kids and not thinking about, like, is this kid just being a kid? Are there other things we can do in the meantime? You know, it's a back and forth ebb and flow thing. But I also think there are doctors out there who are like, I'm like, really are concerned

about people drug seeking and are like, I'm not going to prescribe you this right away. Um, particularly if I don't have a relationship with you already, that's why it's important. I think to have, even though I'm bad about it. And since moving, I had a primary physician when I was living in Sioux city. Um, but it took me a minute to kind of get that established here. And once you develop that relationship with that doctor, like it's much easier to be like, this is what I'm thinking. Or if I went into my doctor and said,

I am wondering about this health issue, but I saw this thing, you know, she wouldn't necessarily be like, yeah, take all the drugs. But she also wouldn't necessarily be like, because you brought that up.

I'm actually going to question your judgment here. But I think this is something that, you know, you and I have talked about talking about on this episode or on this podcast and it might be good for today is like our advertising of medications and stuff. And I know we touched upon it a little already, but people are going in and saying, I saw this thing on TV and I want to know. Yeah. It was such a shock when i came over for the first time and saw medications being advertised and not only that it's it's the like the small print afterwards so like they really fast all the side effects this might cause bleeding from your eyeballs uh explosive diarrhea you might die your liver might explode and you may die it's just like

what the fuck is happening here it's crazy you know what that rash is going to clear up really well yeah yeah that is yeah that blew my mind because i just we just don't have that when i read that it's because you guys don't want like patients coming in thinking they have an issue needing a drug like leave that to the expert right go talk to your doctor about your issues and let them do their job to come to the conclusion whereas you know here there are people you could go to and be like I saw this commercial I think you know whatever and they'd be like okay you can try it if you want like there are doctors that really will just do that and not think about the consequences and that could be because they're

overworked they don't care they're being paid whatever you know so i sent you one the other week didn't i it was it was actually christina aguilera yes advertising a new type of Botox, I think it was. I'll see if I can find it. And even on her post, like, the fucking side effects were, like, crazy. I hate wrinkles. I hate wrinkles more than I hate life. Yep. More than I care about Like life. Yep. More than I care about having, you know, my eyeballs fall out.

It's crazy. I don't know if I can find it. It was the Xeomin thing, right? Yeah. I think that was the drug. All right, let's see what the Xeomen side effects are. Itching, rash, redness, swelling, wheezing, asthma symptoms, dizziness, or feeling faint. So, you know, you want to get rid of some of those forehead wrinkles.

You might also develop, you know, difficulty swallowing, respiratory infections, muscle weakness, flu-like symptoms. Yeah. yeah it says here ask your doctor to tell you all about zeomin the effects of zeomin may spread hours to weeks hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing speaking breathing eye problems or muscle weakness can be a sign of a life-threatening condition. Fucking hell. Side effects also may include allergic reactions or injection site pain, eyelid drooping, or swelling. These are not all the possible side effects of CMF. Only in rare cases have people died. Yeah, that's crazy.

yeah that's crazy there are some drugs out there that like the side effects clearly outweigh what it does like chemo drugs right chemo drugs you're gonna maybe lose your hair you're gonna feel like shit but like it that is kind of pales in comparison to having cancer right so i can see why knowing the side effects is important, but it is funny watching some of these commercials. Even I look at them and laugh and it's like someone, like a woman rollerblading and having a great time. And, you know, I can show my skin because I don't, my eczema is cleared up because I take this Cymbaltic or whatever.

And then it's like the side effects, you know, you actually might have a worse rash please be aware that your sphincter may fall out of your ass anal prolapse that's fine no one will see that they can see your ugly skin wear a diaper so mad I mean we obviously have like you know when we have medication there's side effects on there but never anything like that i wonder if our like medical approval for drugs is different here as well i mean it must be because we don't have anything as crazy as i actually had something prepared for when we ultimately talked about this and I didn't like do anything with it yet. But like Dupixent, this person was kickboxing, riding their bike,

blah, blah, blah. But allergic diseases, eczema, asthma, nasal polyps might be side effects of this thing that I think was actually just for rheumatoid arthritis or something. I don't know. And then a Zempik, which treats type two diabetes, but you might also, this is the one that people are using for like weight loss now. Um, thus taking it away from people with type two diabetes. I mean, I get it like fine. Cause they're now saying like, it also might be helpful in addiction treatment. So I mean, okay. But it's like pancreatitis uh nausea diarrhea vomiting in addition to your weight loss and type 2 diabetes whatever no big deal shit the bed yeah but the it was in 1997 that the food and drug administration here lifted

restrictions on direct to consumer advertising previously it was required 1997 that the Food and Drug Administration here lifted restrictions on direct-to-consumer advertising. Previously, it was required that all the warnings were included, and that made the commercials very long. So they lifted that to basically major risks and just, like, where you can find more information. Right. Wow. In 2002, a study found ads disseminated misleading information in defense of the ads. The ads did not affect which medications people ultimately got, but that they went and got help. So I think that's what someone was saying is like someone might see an ad, be like, I have that issue.

I'm going to go see my doctor. So they might not actually get that med, but at least prompted them to go get health care, which, OK, fine. So they might not actually get that med, but at least prompted them to go get health care, which, okay, fine. But maybe we just have commercials about common issues and just say, go see your doctor to talk about your options. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy.

What a crazy world we live in. Hmm. I think overall, though, is there are, there's no perfect system. I think that's what I've always kind of thought. There's no perfect system, but the best system what I've always kind of thought. There's no perfect system, but the best system to me is one that provides equal, like equitable access for people and like allows people to get care they need without going to like life ruining debt or having to like sacrifice in some

way. I'm very much of the opinion that I would rather like have my taxes and stuff go to that sort of thing than like the military yeah that's exactly it like obviously the nhs isn't perfect because it is stretched but i think it's i think our system is one of the best because like even if you haven't paid national insurance you can still go and get like i could come visit yeah having never paid a dime into national insurance and get care and i wouldn't have to get like travel insurance no or anything like that like i would get cared for and i wouldn't have a bill exactly but then we've also got private if you want

to pay for private health care and go down that route i don't want to pay for anything we got the best of both worlds yeah well people have both right they might they might have private insurance to supplement things like going to the dentist or maybe you know mental health care so that they can get it because i think the one thing that i thought that maybe eng England was a little behind on it but maybe it's getting better is kind of the conversations about mental health and like encouraging therapy not necessarily medication but just encouraging people to address mental health rather than yeah and oh it's definitely a country forefront of it's yeah it's it's being dealt with and talked about it's just getting the help on the nhs for

that sort of thing is glad you recognize your suicidal ideation you've got to wait two years before you can talk about it further though just hold on a little bit more please yeah yeah well what a bummer that's super glad we got to talk about that interesting though i find it fascinating it is yeah i think probably this could be an ongoing conversation too just because i know like we could talk about the affordable care act and obama and people's thoughts about that and what that did for people and how it just like there were changes that allowed me to stay on my parents insurance until much older than what used to be the case so I got to stay on until I was 26 I was already like had my own job and was working by that point

so yeah anyway for another day for another time baby oh yeah hey I think that's the first time you did it for this episode i've refrained like three times from doing it nice i hate that i wish you would just feel free to be yourself oh thank you baby well that took up a lot of time maybe we could move straight into the ick factor portion and save some of our other discussions for next time. And then I can do a little more research anyways. Yeah, cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. You want me to do it or are you doing it? You do it. Okay. So this is, I think, something that you and I have kind of noted. Interesting question. Maybe even talked about it in different ways, both on air and off air. But it is interesting because I think we could both think about all of the times that maybe we've developed crushes, dated, you-term, long-term, whatever. And if we really sat down and thought about it, could pull up a lot of different examples of things.

Some shallow, maybe some not. But the question is, have you ever gotten an ick from a potential partner or love interest that instantly killed your attraction to them? If so, what happened? And we can talk about some of the answers because this is a Reddit post, but I think I want to hear more about from you. Yeah, I mean, there's been, there's definitely been a few over the years. But some that spring to mind immediately are men revving their cars or driving ridiculously fast when there's fucking no need to do so yeah and they think we think it's cool we don't no in fact my usual response is i wish my dick was that small when I hear that. Yeah, I also find that icky. Also just like general self-care or lack of self-care.

So someone smelling bad, long toenails. Is that a dog? Oh no, it's just my dates feet clicking scratching along the floor yeah um and i guess like mansplaining um can be really off-putting yeah especially like i don't know just in a really like toxic arrogant way do you know what i mean especially when you're just getting to know someone and that's like yeah how they engage with you. It would just be like, fuck you, dude. How about fuck you? Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with all of those.

Those would be things that would be really kind of a turnoff for me too. And I'm sure probably were in reality just thinking about the numerous men that I've. in reality just thinking about the numerous men that I've I this is I think probably one that's true for a lot of people because I think it is a big deal but like being a really bad kisser yeah it's hard and I specifically remember kind of like a few guys like I could compare their kissing style to like an animal like one guy's kind of seemed like a weird little snake and one guy seemed like this like a little mole rodent kind of and I just not that I was like especially like the first time I kissed someone I'm sure I was not great but like I just it seems to me that many there think like being like the tightest clenched mouth or like I'm gonna unhinge my jaw and and use my tongue to fish out your tonsils yeah that's the worst wipe your face afterwards or just like really jam it in there i don't know

i think like there's of course depending on the kind of vibe like sure the kissing might get a little more aggressive or something i don't know but just like the first kiss is often the deal maker deal breaker for me and there have been a couple guys where I was like, he was really hot, but I just, no, I can't. Can't do that. Also, it's like, just follow what the other person's doing. They're probably sending you some cues. Some people are just like, nope, this is what I'm doing. I don't know if it would be worth us trying to save the video from this episode and posting it somewhere because that was great.

Yeah, that is a rough one. And you can kind of tell early on if you're going to. I mean, there's probably been a few times where it's like, all right, I'll give them another shot. And then it probably never got better. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. So it's like all right i'll give them another shot and then it probably never got better yeah yeah that's good so sounds like you agree i do indeed yeah that's a bit of a deal breaker but i also this kind of similar with your kind of revving the engines and stuff like this whole like masculine aggro kind of like fighting behavior that sometimes guys like you bumped into me you know i'm gonna like fight you kind of get really aggressive do you know what i'm talking about i'll give you an example because i think it's a really prime one that really

fucking turns me off um i was on on a date sort of this is a long story that that i probably won't talk about today but like i was out with a guy who there were a slew of this is a long story that that I probably won't talk about today but like I was out with a guy who there were a slew of other issues with him but I think I was just like okay yes I'll meet up for a drink and he was already I think pretty intoxicated at that point too when I met up with him I didn't know at the time though and we were at a bar and some guy older gentleman like he was I was probably 23 or 24 at the time and he was like 50 60s you know he was drunk too he came out it was just us sitting outside he came out and you know as drunk people are especially when it's just two other people outside they'll you know made a comment to us like oh you know nice night yeah and then he kind of

went on to say like oh you smell really nice um and then he kind of went on to say like oh you smell really nice um and you know kind of just generally chit chat but was complimenting me and my date was like get the fuck away from her or if you say anything about her again i'm gonna take this glass and break it and cut the nose off your fucking face wow yeah and it was just like and he was like getting really aggro and aggressive and escal face wow yeah and it was just like and he was like getting really aggro and aggressive and escalated about it and i was just so embarrassed because yes this old man was like we didn't want him chatting with us but he also was not bothering us really he was just drunk and it wasn't even he wasn't even being super lecherous but i was just like i i truly hate that that kind of behavior really

bothers me yeah i had a similar thing once with a guy i was seeing we were just just walking down the road together and he saw someone who he'd fallen out with or i don't know some beef had happened between them and he ran across the road and like grabbed this guy by the throat and like started threatening him I was just like wow that was unnecessary like Jesus like one you just ignore him meant to be with me and that didn't even engage with you no it's just not attractive at all like it's just yeah so did that end it after that or it didn't actually no maybe just kind of led to the downhill yeah that's trend of it ending yeah yeah mine didn't the story i just told you that wasn't

quite the end of it either it should have been many instances before that should have been as well but it's it's one of those things where it's like you it's implanted in your mind and it probably guides future encounters and ultimately your desire yeah to even engage with that person anymore so and it you know it shows you their character. Yeah. Red flag. For sure. Some of the Reddit comments were, I saw his butt crack while getting out of a car. Which, yeah, okay, fair. Was it because he wasn't wearing underwear? Was it dirty?

I could see that. But I also think sometimes that happens. Yeah. I don't know if that'd be an instant deal breaker for me, but this one, he smelled like nacho cheese Doritos. Oh, yum. Yeah.

So kind of going self care smelling bad. Yeah. I can see that out of the blue. They told me they fuck someone at Ikea right before dinner. Overshare. Okay. Yeah. A guy peed his pants while driving my car

and didn't even acknowledge it. I got back to his place and I bounced. Thankfully I had a towel in my truck. Yeah. Yep. That would be... Yeah. I'm getting the ick from that. Yep. Sorry, have you just pissed yourself? In my car.

In my car? In my car. Yeah. Okay. I met a pretty cute girl for a date. When we met, she pulled out a stick of gum and littered with the foil wrapper. Like, boom, right there and then. I was so shocked. I was frozen and I didn't do anything.

I was like 20 at the time. Inside, I was like, what the fuck? We walked around the park and talked a bit. Shortest, most awkward date ever. The one action made her so ugly to me yeah littering i'd be the same i mean i can respect that but i was expecting when i just glanced at it i was like oh what did she do oh she she littered her foil like pick it up and be like i really hate litterers man and then but you said But he said he was 20 at the time and stuff. He was a balding adult male goth. Okay. Just not your type, I guess.

Tell me what your thoughts are on this one, because I think this kind of goes into my aggro, kind of unnecessary behavior. Rude to the waiter. Yeah. I hate when people are just dicks for no reason there's no need for it yeah that's not a good look and an immediate red flag on a date if someone's rude to the waiter or anyone actually anyone like a cleaner you know taxi driver bus driver anything like that. Red flag. I mean, I even think, like, if someone's being rude to you, I would appreciate someone who kind of took the high road, right?

But I get there might be some instances where I might be like, no, you were fucking right to do that. But, yeah. All right. Last one, because it's funny. He ended our phone call saying he was off to have his dindins. All right, last one, because it's funny. He ended our phone call saying he was off to have his dindins. That's a good one.

Yeah, I suppose words could make a difference. It depends how they say it. Yeah. Maybe really bad grammar or spelling just consistently would be hard. Yeah, that one's tricky. But then it's, you can't, I I don't know it's hard to judge someone on yeah I suppose if they're like dyslexic or something or just yeah I it depends right I suppose it'd be easy to do just meeting them dating online online dating and stuff but if it

were met him in person and was getting to know him and then they sent me a text and it's like real bad maybe I could let that go yeah anymore yeah there's i mean there's loads but i mean someone said the n-word hard or yeah that would be a big one for me i would i would be repulsed and make sure i let them know that before i walked away yeah any form of like bigotry racism anything like that really just run took off his jacket and was wearing a thin blue line shirt which that is like pro police just so you know that's what it i'll show you it's like the thin blue line is like a simple you know like blm black lives matter oh it's like the thin blue line is like a symbol, you know, like BLM, Black Lives Matter. Oh, okay. It's like that, but.

Blue Lives Matter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Yeah. Hard no. I think just because the connotation of it's kind of like if I would see this, I would see similar to me as seeing like the Confederate flag. Yeah, okay. Like, okay, I know what you stand for and what you believe in

so yeah no thank you ta-ta i'm off my dindins okay well that was that was fun i love talking about things that disgust us about other people just spreading the word man yeah okay but i think it's time for our weekly segment of am i the asshole you know you are baby oh yeah okay am i the asshole for asking my roommates to remove their dildos from the bathroom mirror in a way that was not kind. Oh no, this is going to be a hard one. Okay. Last night, one of my roommates washed their dildos in the bathroom sink and suctioned them onto the mirror to dry. I used the bathroom shortly after and when I came out, knocked on

their door and they said, who is it? And I said, get your dildos off the bathroom mirror and walked away. Why did they ask who is it? I mean, they brought, okay, sorry. Yep. Go on. It's me, your dildo. I went to bed later that night. The following morning, both dildos were still stuck on the mirror when I walked in. And again, I told them to get their dildos out the bathroom. They told me I need to ask them kindly instead of demanding. And I said that I shouldn't have to ask at all. We got into an argument about it. I'm worried that maybe I'm the arsehole because I definitely didn't kindly ask, but it's not like I was mean or unkind either as stated above I feel like I shouldn't have to ask at all for my roommates not to leave their

dildos in the common area and the insistence that I ask them kindly feels like them trying to derail from my request for the dildos not to be left in the common area thoughts okay so i feel like there is perhaps there should be an unspoken understanding about items such as that being left in such a way that could impede the use of the room i mean i just thought there was an unspecific rule about that yeah i think i or to me it seems like that is one of those things where if that is how that person cleans them and dries them and stuff then like that maybe should have been a discussion because it's just sticking a dildo on a mirror in a bathroom is different than washing the dildo and like leaving it, letting it, letting it dry in a towel, maybe like on a shelf or something, you know, like that could have been an opportunity for that person. So they said I worried I'm the asshole because I definitely didn't ask kindly. But I also wasn't super unkind or just like maybe a little demanding. But has this been an issue before where it's like, could you not do this?

And they still do. Because then I would be like, I don't know if you're the asshole here. Like you guys already talked about this. And they still do, because then I would be like, I don't know if you're the asshole here. Like, you guys already talked about this. But if it was the first time they saw it, first time it's happened, it could just be like, do you think we could come up with a different way for you to do this? Yeah. Or did you just forget this one time?

And so, like, hey, they're still in there. I have company coming over. I guess I wonder if this person's, like, kind of uncomfortable with dildos, which that is maybe a dynamic that they need to figure out for themselves. But I suppose like it would be like if I lived with you, Gemma, and you left your tampons everywhere. I don't know. It's kind of just like don't, maybe don't do that. I'm trying to think of an equivalent because i don't want to like shame anybody but it feels like that is not that was not like the

best way to leave it either you know what i'm saying yeah let it dry in your bedroom mirror do you know what i mean well like or you know stick them on there for the second and then once you're finishing up cleaning up the bathroom pull them off because now there's gonna also be suction rings you're gonna have to clean and like maybe drips like you're gonna be tidying up in there i just don't just like do it in the bathroom let them dry and then when you leave take them with you you know um that'd be the polite thing to do both people maybe are slightly assholes in this scenario and i because certainly the roommate could have asked better but i also think that like to say i won't do it until you like they could have then went and removed them and been like hey i'm sorry i would appreciate it if you didn't like bang on my door and yell at me if you

needed me to do something you know they both could have probably talked about it a different way what are your thoughts yeah very similar to yours really um I think I'd probably feel a little bit uncomfortable if someone left their dildo in the in the communal bathroom I'm not a prude but I'd probably feel a little bit uncomfortable if someone left their dildo in the communal bathroom. I'm not a prude, but I'd be like, what's your dildo doing there, mate? What are you doing? The top comment on this is great. There's a couple I want to read you, actually.

Leaving dildos on the mirror is a dick move. Ba-dum-bum. read you actually. Leaving dildos on the mirror is a dick move. And the poster should have just taken them and put them in their room. And when the roommate asks, say that you used it. It was in the common area, so I assumed it was for everyone. That would have been a really clever way to go about it. Yeah. That would have been a really clever way to go about it yeah that would be so good

yeah it's just a reflection of who they are oh this is a bunch of dads making dad jokes on this post don't be such a dildo i'm just trying to think if like that I don't that wouldn't I would probably be so private about that that I don't even know if I would want to clean them in the bathroom you know it's like I'll just do it in my room um some other people have suggested that maybe it was like a power move like as you say like some people wouldn't want to do that yeah um this person said i'm a very open person but when it comes to this stuff i would not dream of leaving my toys out in a public common area no even when i lived in alone just in case someone stopped over and if you're

feeling really petty next time put on some rubber gloves and suction them to their window from the outside so that they can't reach it or their car windshield they'll get the message yeah yeah that is something you could do oh the patchiness yeah it's just like the thing is is there's like a when you have a roommate you it's not the same as living with your family on your own with a partner you know there are just certain things that i think you have to do kind of just out of mutual respect for your roommate right like some like clean up the mess you made in the kitchen and now people don't do that too you know but that's where you get roommate beef exactly so and then you already start engaging

in power struggles and like i had a roommate in college whom I love dearly and we joke about this all the time. But I think I can't remember exact circumstances of it. But I think we have people over and some someone peed in like a beer sign and like left it on the table. And either because neither of us knew who did it, whose guest it was. Neither of us cleaned it up. Like, I was like, I'm not cleaning up your mug, your friend's mug of piss friend. And she's like, I'm not cleaning up your friend's mug of piss. And I was like, none of my friends peed in that mug. How long did it stay there? Not super long, but I, I'm a hundred percent positive it was one of her friends. And, uh, mostly cause I didn't have a lot of friends, but

you just never cleaned it up. It just stayed there for two years. And, but we joke about the mug of piss because it was like, who, who did that? And how come like none of us realized that was happening. And I also, now I'm, now I'm thinking about it. I wonder if we actually were like, is that actually piss or is that just like apple juice that did not happen the joke is just that mug of piss was there for a few days yeah yeah

good times well we've really uh put the world to rights there from health care to dildos to beer steins of piss we've covered it all solving the world's most difficult issues i just we're really doing good clean work i think we're doing the god's work actually aren't we yeah i was gonna say gods and then i was like i don't know if i want doing the God's work, actually, aren't we? Yeah, I was going to say God's, and then I was like, I don't know if I want to say God's work. But yeah, we are doing God's work, the Lord's work, really. Amen, sister. Amen, baby.

Oh, yeah. Well, on that note, talked enough shit for today. Yeah. As we said at the top please check out our tiktok twitter upcoming instagram um pages talk talking shit with yank and brit the tiktok and the twitter are the twayab i can't switch way up t S W A Y A A B. You'll find us. Don't worry.

We have an email. Nope, not at all. Not at all. We have an email talk shit to us. Please. I would love to hear some of our listeners. Ick factor,

like put huge turnoffs, things that just made you not want to see someone anymore. Yeah. Um, interesting experiences of health care in the u.s or the uk um maybe what your thoughts are about the dildos on the mirror have you ever stuck your dildo to a mirror or you know if i was in the wrong or my roommate was in the wrong about leaving that glass piss yeah who was the arsehole in that scenario? Let us know.

Talk shit to us at gmail.com. Like, rate, subscribe, review. Give us five stars. Tell everyone about us because we're funny and charming and wise and cute and affluent and just really good friends. Yeah. All of the above. What she said. All right. Love you, Gemma. Love you tooma have a good rest of the week and you ta-ta for now bye G-Bag, remember when I was telling you the other day about how it's hard for me to leave my home because I don't want to leave my blender?

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