piffle pod

This week Elo recommends Olivia Wilde's new A24 film The Invite – an off-beat comedy starring Wilde alongside Seth Rogen , Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton , about a married couple who invite their upstairs neighbours around and things get weird pretty quickly. No spoilers, but we do discuss how the film was partly inspired by the breakdown of Wilde's relationship with Jason Sudeikis , and...

This week we tried something a little different: we each brought a topic the other knew nothing about until we hit record. First up, Urs brings us a recent article from The Cut about ⁠millennials feeling entitled to their parents' money⁠ . We read through some of the scenarios — adult children watching their parents cruise the Mediterranean and buy yachts while they drown in student debt — and...

A new book argues that we've become too afraid of sunlight. But is the sun really misunderstood or are public health experts right to keep the message simple? In this episode, we discuss In Defense of Sunlight by science journalist Rowan Jacobsen and the growing conversation around sunlight, sunscreen, vitamin D and skin cancer. After seeing Jacobsen's arguments featured in Allure and acro...

Today, we're completing the unofficial trio of books taking the world by storm this year: Famesick by Lena Dunham , Strangers by Belle Burden , and now Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. We discuss our thoughts on Yesteryear's zeitgeisty themes of tradwife culture, mommy bloggers, and the curated world of social media influencing - and what happens when the curtain gets pulled back to reveal...

Inspired by a recent article in The Cut , we discuss why so many people in their 30s and 40s are feeling lost, stuck or uncertain about the future. Despite having 15-20 years of experience, many are finding themselves unemployed, searching for work for months at a time, or questioning careers and identities they spent decades building. From there, we dive into artificial intelligence (AI) and the...

This week on the piffle pod, we review Strangers by Belle Burden - the wildly discussed memoir about a husband leaving his wife and three children after 20 years of marriage to begin an entirely new life. We dive into the book’s themes of love, betrayal, emotional labour, identity and reinvention, but also the part we couldn’t stop thinking about: the extreme wealth quietly sitting beneath the sto...

In this episode, we discuss It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley - the music documentary directed by Amy Berg that gives us a rare insight into who Jeff really was, featuring interviews with his mother, bandmates, friends like Ben Harper , and former girlfriends, alongside a treasure trove of archival footage of the late musician. We unpack Jeff Buckley’s remarkable and complicated life: his childhood, h...

In this week’s episode, we discuss Famesick , the highly anticipated second memoir from Lena Dunham, and unpack her return to the cultural conversation after years of public backlash and controversy. We get into: ​Her long-term chronic health struggles and how they shaped both her career and personal life ​The controversies that defined public perception of her throughout the 2010s ​Her writing ab...

In this episode, we break down the full evolution of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - from its 1999 indie and alternative roots to the global, brand-heavy, influencer-driven event it’s become in 2026. We get into: How Pearl Jam boycotting Ticketmaster inspired the first ever Coachella, and how the festival continued to evolve into a cultural force The shift from music-first festival...

This week we kick off with our thoughts on The Drama , the new film starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson . Note: we do discuss some spoilers, but we tell you exactly where to skip ahead if you'd prefer to watch it first. Then we diving into pile on culture (also known as dogpiling) and ask whether online outrage is ever actually justified. We explore the psychology behind why people join in t...

There are two types of people in this world: people who love pranks and people who have trust issues because of them. This week on the piffle pod, we’re diving into everything April Fools’ Day: where it came from, the best pranks of all time and the ones that went very wrong. We’re joined by a very special guest (and certified prankster), Maffa, to break down what actually makes a prank funny. Fro...

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams goes beyond Facebook’s internal culture to reveal the platform’s global impact, from political influence to real-world harm. In Part 2, we dive into how Facebook shaped events around the world in the 2010s, including its role in the genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, its attempts to negotiate entry into China, and its influence on the 2016 US elect...

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams exposes the reality of working at Facebook - from toxic workplace culture to power, hypocrisy, and private jets. In this week’s episode, we revisit the bestselling memoir Careless People in the context of the ongoing social media addiction trial against Meta in Los Angeles. We break down key insights from the book, alongside what it was really like working wi...

365 party girls unite! We’re talking all things Charli xcx and her new mockumentary The Moment , directed by Aidan Zamiri . In the film, Charli xcx plays a satirical version of herself alongside Alexander Skarsgård as the self-serious 'creative' commercial director hired to commandeer her Brat tour movie. Featuring cameos from Kylie Jenner and Rachel Sennott , The Moment blurs the line bet...

Tighten your corsets! In our first ever episode we're talking piffle about "Wuthering Heights", director Emerald Fennell's modern adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 literary classic, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. We break down the controversial whitewashing of Heathcliff, analyse the costume and production design, explore the character development choices, unpack the critical backlash fo...