Culture Club - October 23, 2023


The New Era Of Internet Agony Aunts With Lucy Neville

Who Is Snail Girl? Cry Me A River

Episode Stats


Length

31 minutes

Words per minute

186.15

Word count

5,832

Sentence count

69

Harmful content

Toxicity

14

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Navigating emotional fatigue, becoming an agony aunt, and turning a passion into a career.
00:00:13.460 I'm Jasmine.
00:00:14.620 And I'm Maggie.
00:00:15.920 And you're listening to Culture Club.
00:00:17.600 This is our monthly interview with a person we find interesting and that we think you will too.
00:00:23.100 we acknowledge that the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people and the Gadigal people are the traditional
00:00:33.600 custodians of the land upon which we live work and record this podcast episode we would like
00:00:39.700 to pay our respects to elders past and present always was always will be aboriginal land
00:00:45.740 with the tagline proclaiming she's exactly like other girls lucy neville is a sydney-based writer
00:00:55.200 and influencer committed to creating a safe and happy corner of the internet lucy has been one
00:01:00.740 of our most requested guests over the years so we had to get her on the mic to learn more about
00:01:05.000 australia's favorite agony aunt hi lucy thanks for joining us today thank you for having me i'm
00:01:10.620 very excited for people who don't know you who are you and what do you do how do you describe
00:01:14.980 yourself yeah really depends but I'm a content creator and agony aunt so basically people write
00:01:22.900 their secrets into me to in exchange for either just like a safe space or sometimes some look
00:01:29.760 it's unqualified advice but I do put a lot of thought and time into it so it's definitely
00:01:34.220 anecdotal but yeah I kind of created this little space on the internet where people can tell me
00:01:39.420 their secrets I can't wait to get into that later we love a bit of gossiping we love a little bit
00:01:44.340 sharing here. Me too. But it's also been such a massive year for you. You recently became a
00:01:51.980 full-time content creator after essentially having two jobs, you know, one in content,
00:01:56.660 one at Mamma Mia. What's that adjustment been like for you? And when did you actually know
00:02:01.540 it was time to take Instagram full-time? Yeah, crazy. Something I never thought I would do,
00:02:08.680 that's for sure I worked at Mamma Mia for four years I started as an office manager um and I
00:02:16.760 left as a senior creative producer so I really loved my time there I've got so much gratitude
00:02:21.760 for the opportunities I had there like I had no degree or anything to kind of I also didn't know
00:02:28.960 what I wanted to do and I felt like there was just a lot of opportunity there and I was really to
00:02:34.240 work really hard and also I met so many of my best friends there like I think about that often
00:02:37.940 And I feel like so many of the people I talk to every single day
00:02:41.520 and I see as friends for life I met there.
00:02:43.440 So very fond memories.
00:02:44.760 And leaving was quite bittersweet in the way that it's not like I was leaving
00:02:49.740 because I was like for any other reason than my content work
00:02:55.420 was really picking up to the point where I started to have to turn down things
00:03:03.520 that I didn't want to turn down just because obviously my work was my priority
00:03:06.700 and I was an employee so I was not going to just be like hey guys can't come in tomorrow because
00:03:10.640 I'm doing a photo shoot like that's I think that's the vibe but I always just I said to myself that
00:03:17.460 my time when I really consider it is when I felt like I was turning things down a lot of the time
00:03:23.500 that just didn't work because of scheduling or timing and it was a challenge to do both jobs
00:03:30.520 just in terms of capacity. I didn't have management for most of it. I kind of got
00:03:36.440 management towards the end of my time there. So I felt like I was working evenings and weekends
00:03:42.560 and, but I knew I had to do that to kind of get it to a place where it could be something I
00:03:47.280 considered a full-time job, but it just felt like the right time. It was, I left at the end of the
00:03:53.460 year. So it felt like I was wrapping up a year and I feel like when I made space for opportunities,
00:03:58.700 they came so I'm really glad that I made the decision but it was definitely bittersweet
00:04:05.060 definitely I love that so much about making the space the adjustment was really weird like I
00:04:10.840 remember January 9th which is like the start of the work year like after holidays and I like
00:04:18.900 opened my laptop and I was like all right full-time employment there's gonna be so many emails for me
00:04:23.960 to do full-time self-employment sorry and I had not a single email not a single job nothing like
00:04:31.540 and that obviously was like okay cool we're now gonna spend some time on our own January's very
00:04:38.840 quiet and so that adjustment was strange really strange well speaking about adjustment periods
00:04:45.620 hey I want to kind of know what was it like entering the media industry without a degree
00:04:51.100 because from our experience of talking to like budding young creatives, there's a lot of,
00:04:56.320 I guess, fear around like not having enough experience or not having the correct degree.
00:05:03.120 How was that like for you? Yeah, I went straight out of school into music. I did music full time
00:05:10.600 for about five years. So I ran a business alongside my dad and released electronic music
00:05:18.960 and had a really fun time doing that but when that came to its natural conclusion I really
00:05:26.580 didn't know what to do I kind of had a couple of odd jobs and jobs not careers if you know what I
00:05:32.640 mean like I was just kind of like yep going to work is fine and that's where I was for that for
00:05:36.900 a little while and then I saw a job come up at Mama Mia and it was an office manager job and I
00:05:43.040 was like that looks like a fun place to work lots of young women and I don't know what I want to do
00:05:47.720 but maybe I'm going to have a city job like it was really different to anything that I'd done before
00:05:51.700 and in terms of not having a degree for that role it wasn't required and then I found that
00:06:00.560 because of my background in kind of running a business there were lots of things that I
00:06:06.340 I could bring to the table regardless of not having a great a degree I was like I've got
00:06:10.500 experience in events I've got experience in production and that's kind of what I ended up
00:06:14.820 doing at Mamma Mia so I feel like I at times it it felt odd especially when my friends were at uni
00:06:22.880 I was like what am I doing what am I doing I'm just like playing shows and what's this going to
00:06:27.520 mean for me in the future and I am I do get a lot of messages about it too I feel like that it is
00:06:33.900 quite a barrier to entry for a lot of jobs in media right but I feel like I just there was a
00:06:41.100 lot of trust and there was a lot of opportunity at Mamma Mia that I'm really grateful for because
00:06:45.640 I don't feel like I was ever discounted for not having a degree and it was more about what I could
00:06:53.500 do with the experience that I had. I love that because you don't hear that very often of people
00:06:57.760 starting in one entry-level job and working their way up especially within that like four years is
00:07:03.740 quite quick to become like a creative producer so I think that's really inspiring for people who
00:07:09.340 might not have a degree or who have a different degree like sometimes to get to where you want
00:07:14.940 to be you don't even know where you want to be so the path you just kind of take the opportunities
00:07:19.360 as they come up I had no idea like within the first year of being there I you know was working
00:07:25.380 on one of the live show tours and then there were some events that I could assist in and I think
00:07:30.920 just really the opportunities that were there just putting my hand up and being like I have something
00:07:36.260 to contribute to this or and sometimes it was scary because I was like I don't know what I'm
00:07:40.240 doing but I'm going to figure it out um and yeah I feel like it was a really good place for that
00:07:45.520 kind of opportunity and yeah as you said I never thought I would have ended up managing other
00:07:51.020 creatives like that that was I would never have believed that when I started there so yeah what
00:07:57.100 has it been like going from that experience of having a team around you all the time um like
00:08:03.500 you know, the regular income and stuff to then being self-employed?
00:08:06.540 Yeah, look, the thing about being self-employed, there's obviously lots of parts of it that give
00:08:11.260 you these extra freedoms. But at the same time, if I want to go on leave or I'm having a shit day 0.84
00:08:18.620 or I'm sick or whatever, that's fine, but I won't make any money. So I think that obviously you're
00:08:26.480 swapping that kind of security for more flexibility. In terms of motivation, I think I have a pretty
00:08:33.240 good personality type for it and I also love being creative and production so I feel like
00:08:40.240 I'm yet to hit a point where I'm like oh I just don't want to do this um so I think in terms of
00:08:46.180 motivation I have that going down but the other thing is working on your own like I'd gone from
00:08:50.720 working in a workplace with 80 90 100 women and then especially in that first month that I was
00:08:56.300 saying like in that January month um you know I was watching everyone go back to work on Instagram
00:09:00.640 and being with friends and I don't know I was like I'm really on my own and I've got great
00:09:06.660 management who I speak to all the time so like it's not like I'm ever actually really on my own
00:09:10.400 but I did feel like okay but in that time I kind of leaned on my other friends my other creator
00:09:16.620 friends so I have friends that I see every week who are creators as well full-time creators because
00:09:22.220 I think it's just good to see a colleague almost um to talk about work and because otherwise it
00:09:29.800 does feel like you're kind of holding everything on your own but yeah I get excited about work
00:09:36.240 still and it's been 10 months so that's a good sign but it definitely very good yeah yeah yeah
00:09:43.680 we teased up top that we were going to be speaking about secrets um and you've recently
00:09:48.660 become Elle magazine's agony aunt can you tell us about that journey and also why you think this
00:09:54.740 type of advice column has kind of made a comeback this year yeah so I pitched the column to Elle
00:10:02.060 because I have this fascination with regret and it's formed over the last few years because of
00:10:11.720 what people write into me and I started to notice that we are really all holding on to
00:10:17.080 things that we've done on the mistakes we've made or things the things we would do differently
00:10:21.960 things we didn't do like these secrets come into me every week and the Instagram format allows for
00:10:27.880 a very small like maybe one sentence of someone's story and I just decided that I wanted to
00:10:35.980 explore those stories more in depth because I feel like we deserve I feel like there's a culture of
00:10:43.980 you know jumping onto something and without hearing the whole story and I just believe
00:10:50.400 that humans are more nuanced than that and I want to know more about someone's story and
00:10:53.740 people carrying around these really heavy burdens I kind of wanted to be in some way help people
00:10:59.780 lighten those so the whole purpose of the column was to have someone speak their regret out loud
00:11:04.680 and behind anonymity so it never felt too exposing and then in the process of that
00:11:11.100 hoping that that person would be able to release their regret and you know carry on a little bit
00:11:16.300 lighter and the readers as well so I you know for most of us we read a story about a regret and we
00:11:22.980 go okay yeah I've probably done something a bit similar I've got something that I can relate to
00:11:26.840 here and I just wanted to lighten some loads I struggle with regret and just thinking yeah it's
00:11:35.780 just like I struggle to forgive myself for things and minor things just that anxiety kind of brain
00:11:43.720 and I was like let's channel this I find that most kind of writing is self-serving in some way I'm
00:11:48.940 like let's channel this into something that I can help people with instead of just sitting in my own
00:11:53.700 brain all the time so yeah I feel like it's been really rewarding and the feedback that I've had
00:11:58.900 from the people that write their stories to me is that sometimes it's the first time they've said
00:12:03.180 it out loud sometimes it's maybe something that's been brewing away at them for decades and saying
00:12:09.620 it and putting it in words has helped them understand it more um I've had really wonderful
00:12:15.080 feedback from it so yeah because a lot of the feedback I would get from my segment on Instagram
00:12:20.560 let it out which is where people share whatever they want to share is sometimes people will react
00:12:25.460 to it so say someone has been unfaithful or cheated or whatever I'd often get a lot of
00:12:30.500 reactions especially at the start being like this is so bad I can't believe this person did this and
00:12:35.900 I was like hang on well like I've created this space for someone to to speak without feeling
00:12:40.960 judged so I wanted to tell these stories in full and hopefully change people's minds and let have
00:12:49.480 people read full stories before coming to a conclusion that's really interesting that you
00:12:54.600 pitched it to Elle that's really really cool like making your own opportunities in that way as well
00:12:59.860 yeah yeah they've been awesome like it's obviously such a iconic publication and it's been a real
00:13:06.700 honor to be able to to write on their platform and I think it's month I think I've published
00:13:12.540 four stories now I'm working on the next one at the moment so it's monthly yeah and if you do feel
00:13:17.900 comfortable do you mind sharing kind of your journey with regret and how you've navigated
00:13:22.900 this especially while I guess grappling with other people's regret yeah I've it's interesting
00:13:29.000 because I feel like I've got so much time and advice for other people and when they write into
00:13:34.700 me saying here's this thing that I did 10 years ago 15 years ago or here's something that I'm
00:13:42.640 going through right now I'm like I can see that on paper and not feel any shame or judgment towards
00:13:49.600 them and in fact I feel often mostly just empathy and compassion and I'm like this must be really
00:13:53.800 heavy for you to carry and then it's almost like I turn my phone off or shut my laptop and I go
00:13:57.820 remember that time you weren't the nicest possible person that you could have been to that person
00:14:02.460 in year seven or whatever and it's like I don't seem to have that compassion for myself that's a
00:14:07.480 therapy situation we're working on it but um yeah I I wanted to it's almost like reassuring myself
00:14:15.180 through the column that from all the feedback that we get from like people are good people
00:14:19.940 are compassionate and they read people's stories and they understand them and yeah I feel like
00:14:25.100 it's been a very it's been a wonderful process especially talking to the I get the honor and
00:14:31.780 the privilege of being able to be trusted by these people and speak with them more in depth
00:14:35.100 about their stories and it's been very healing very healing so this column started from you have
00:14:41.720 multiple segments on Instagram on your page your column started with let it out I was wondering
00:14:46.720 because you're hearing like the worst parts of people's week or like something super heavy that
00:14:51.660 they've been carrying like you said do you ever struggle with emotional fatigue when when like
00:14:57.080 every week you're getting like people's really sad stories and like do you have any I don't
00:15:03.900 kind of self-care that you do to like combat that or do you just feel only empathy and love and you
00:15:08.880 just want to help people I think there are some stories that stick more than others but I am
00:15:15.280 i will like cry at ads on tv i'm very i like to just like take on emotional load but
00:15:22.980 it has never felt draining or taxing and that's really the honest truth like i don't feel um
00:15:31.460 i never really feel heavy after hearing people's stories i feel this
00:15:35.460 real sense of gratitude that they trust me with them and i take that trust really seriously
00:15:42.580 and through covid and obviously there are some stories that are more uh like someone's worst day
00:15:49.040 that they've written it about is that they dropped their favorite wine glass and like oh that sucks 0.95
00:15:53.880 right like all of us we know that's a shit feeling and then someone might have lost their mum like 0.99
00:15:59.560 those are two very different levels of a bad day right two very different days and I think that 0.97
00:16:07.260 I just always feel really grateful that not only have I do they trust me with their
00:16:15.220 you know what they're going through but also that they know that the community that's grown around
00:16:19.700 it is going to receive their submission with nothing but empathy and kindness like I really
00:16:25.480 rarely get the internet I know can be a bit how are you going but I rarely receive
00:16:30.740 the negative side of it because I feel like my community has grown slowly and the people that
00:16:39.420 come to it know that the conditions of being a part of that community is that we
00:16:44.380 respect people's share like when people share and we listen and we learn and yeah I the answer to
00:16:53.640 that is probably some things I think about a lot there are people like I know most people that write
00:16:57.680 in by name I think about them often sometimes I'll check in but it also is important for everyone to
00:17:04.560 understand I'm not a therapist I'm not there to kind of be someone's sole support but if they
00:17:09.700 need to just write it in a question box on Instagram to get something off their chest like
00:17:13.360 I'm more than happy to do that I've actually written into your letter that before we kind of
00:17:19.640 knew of each other I think I just started following you and it was like a medical thing
00:17:23.820 and it was something I was like kind of concerned about but I was like oh and you just did let it 0.52
00:17:29.420 out thing and I did feel lighter afterwards like you were just like oh that sucks like
00:17:34.700 go get it checked out or something along those lines um and just having someone because I felt
00:17:41.000 like I was like being a hypochondriac so I didn't want to tell people closest to me I was like it's
00:17:44.140 probably nothing like it's fine but just telling like a basically stranger on the internet just
00:17:49.320 felt like this tiny weight had lifted and then I don't I think I forgot about it or something like
00:17:53.500 that but yeah wow that's so powerful that you just it's so true like you don't even need to
00:17:58.300 therapy speak back to people like invest that like get a degree in psychology to do this like
00:18:04.520 it's just like that community basically that you've created which I think is so special and
00:18:10.260 there's not many places on the internet like that these days I feel like most people just want to
00:18:14.220 say it like they just want to say something and I get it like sometimes when the elephant's in the
00:18:19.880 room but you're not you don't feel like you can tell anyone the elephant's in the room like if
00:18:24.860 you don't want to burden your friends with something which obviously I feel like we're
00:18:28.980 not burdening our friends we should be able to talk to our friends but I get it because I when
00:18:33.200 I'm going through something but I'm also supporting a friend through something I don't then want to be
00:18:36.880 like oh I'm having the worst time so I feel like sometimes just again I'm also a third party so
00:18:42.360 for most of these things that are really stressful in someone's life I don't know anything about it
00:18:46.680 So they can tell me whatever they want.
00:18:49.380 They don't have to add the nuance around it.
00:18:51.460 They can be like, do you know what? 1.00
00:18:52.400 My sister's boyfriend sucks. 1.00
00:18:53.620 And I'm like, right. 1.00
00:18:55.240 That sucks. 0.98
00:18:56.660 Yeah. 0.99
00:18:57.160 So I'm not going to be their mum being like, oh,
00:18:59.660 but he really does try.
00:19:01.180 You know what I mean?
00:19:01.960 So I feel like it's just a.
00:19:03.380 You don't know.
00:19:04.260 Yeah.
00:19:04.740 I don't know.
00:19:05.540 I do often get replies being like, we need more context.
00:19:08.940 And I have to remind people like, we're not going to get more context.
00:19:11.340 That's the context.
00:19:12.100 And that's fine.
00:19:14.080 Just let them say it.
00:19:15.440 And move on.
00:19:15.800 I'm also really pleasantly surprised to hear that while, yes, internet is just a dodgy place at times, but you don't engage or you don't receive too many trolls because aside from this content that you provide, you know, this safe space for people to share, you also post a lot about like the realities of life, whether that be like bad mental health days or body image.
00:19:42.360 but overall it is a really really happy and positive space and I'm wondering have you ever
00:19:47.980 been accused of perpetuating toxic positivity has that been a conversation that you've ever
00:19:52.840 had to encounter I haven't and I feel like I'm conscious of uh walking that line really carefully
00:20:01.400 like I don't ever want to pretend that everything is awesome all the time it's certainly not and
00:20:08.580 the last couple of years have been eye-opening for everyone I think like I do struggle with my
00:20:13.360 mental health so I make a conscious effort not to I don't feel like I have to share but it's almost
00:20:19.280 like I can be a really happy motivated driven person and also be struggling and that doesn't
00:20:26.200 take away from how good I am at my job or like I like to be as honest as I can with my following
00:20:32.520 I do have boundaries in place kind of invisible boundaries I guess um but I did find that when I
00:20:39.840 shifted to posting more about my actual life which is not always wonderful um people felt safer to
00:20:49.080 share about theirs as well and I think that that was you know Instagram three years ago was just
00:20:55.080 hot photos like it's really changed in that time and I try to be positive I try to be a positive
00:21:03.820 place for people to come on the internet because I think there are so many places that don't make
00:21:07.300 you feel good like I want to be part of someone's curated feed that is set up to make them feel good
00:21:12.080 about themselves but that's not to say that we don't talk about difficult things as well
00:21:16.760 um so no no one's ever said it was toxically positive but I am I'm super conscious of that
00:21:23.360 as well like if someone writes in with something really awful I'm not going to be like no worries 0.95
00:21:27.740 bestie smile through it like I will be like this sucks this really sucks give yourself a moment to 0.98
00:21:34.740 grieve and what can we do to move forward and you know not live in this grief for the next 0.98
00:21:40.900 however many years I try to move people forward but also not letting them but not not letting them
00:21:47.080 acknowledge that stuff sucks sometimes you just said before so obviously you have your your
00:21:54.080 platform with your where you're sharing um you're listening to people um but then you also have 0.95
00:21:59.700 lucy neville as a person which is it's like intertwined like it's your personal account
00:22:03.160 um so do you have social media boundaries i was wondering because it's something that i've
00:22:09.180 been learning a lot this year and trying to implement around the internet because
00:22:14.580 working in media having the podcast having a personal page it's not heaps big or anything
00:22:20.040 but like just all those things intertwined and it felt like I was always always like living my life
00:22:26.100 through the lens of social media so I was wondering do you struggle with that and um yeah what are your
00:22:31.260 boundaries my boundaries um a really good example of my boundaries is there was an incident maybe a
00:22:39.680 year ago where someone on the street doesn't like as in total random came up and just hit me on the
00:22:45.880 street and they were you know it was it was really scary it was awful and because I'm such a chronic
00:22:53.360 poster I posted about it straight away and just was like this was an awful experience like like
00:23:00.020 I don't know who this person is like it was total random just like someone having a bad day I guess
00:23:04.940 and I immediately started getting really well-meaning
00:23:10.060 and messages of concern and I started to feel worse
00:23:16.860 because I realised that I had posted before I had processed
00:23:20.860 and I've just been hit by a stranger on the street in my lunch break.
00:23:25.340 Like what the hell has just happened?
00:23:27.700 Do I need to go to the police?
00:23:28.980 Do I need to like, you know, I hadn't thought about any of these things
00:23:32.660 and before I had given myself a chance to be to feel shaken up and to you know give myself a
00:23:38.800 moment to be like what the hell just happened I now had lots of really well-meaning people
00:23:43.360 in my DM saying you need to report this to the police what if they do it to someone else like
00:23:47.760 are you okay and I realized that I wasn't okay and I also wasn't ready to respond to
00:23:51.940 all these messages about it so that was probably the first time that I realized that I'm not going
00:23:58.900 to talk about things when they're difficult in that moment so I now talk about something
00:24:05.340 I might have gone through something six months ago and maybe then I'll start talking about it like
00:24:09.780 I was diagnosed with arthritis a couple years ago didn't talk about it for a while because
00:24:13.840 shitty time didn't really want to talk about it and then when I'm ready to talk about it and I've
00:24:19.700 wrapped my head around it and it doesn't feel as big and scary and it feels more I don't know
00:24:26.480 think something that I can handle then I'll you know I'm comfortable with people asking questions
00:24:30.180 but that is my biggest boundary is there's always something going on that I'm not talking about but
00:24:36.020 it doesn't mean that I'm not being honest it's just that I'm not ready to talk about it and
00:24:40.740 I also don't share um you know I'm in a relationship but I would never post anything that
00:24:48.660 you know my partner's not particularly on social media that much so it's I wouldn't post anything
00:24:53.800 to make him uncomfortable I check with him before I post anything about us same with my family I'm
00:24:59.940 pretty conscious about my choice to be online and the people around me maybe not making that same
00:25:06.020 choice but they might not feel like they can say oh I don't really want you to post that so those
00:25:11.620 are my boundaries and yeah just just giving myself a moment to digest something before
00:25:18.380 opening it up to commentary and messages and just for other people to to kind of yeah I want to make
00:25:27.300 sure I understand something before I start explaining it yeah thank you for sharing that
00:25:31.040 as well because um seeing your arthritis content it's really meaningful for me I have an autoimmune
00:25:36.480 condition and I also see a like rheumatologist for it um and you don't see many other young
00:25:41.920 woman speaking about this I did want to ask though how do you navigate chronic pain in the
00:25:49.480 world of what you're doing in terms of work yeah my arthritis is pretty under control at the moment
00:25:55.120 which is awesome but it hasn't always been that it does get really hard especially when you know
00:26:03.680 I want to be able to do things and I will say there are sometimes people will make comments
00:26:10.640 not so much now but at the start like sometimes my autoimmune will cause for a while they had to
00:26:16.760 be on a really restricted diet and um for purely because I was changing some just stuff with my
00:26:23.520 doctors and you know people will start commenting on bodies and things like that and I'm like oh
00:26:27.860 I'm really sick right now like this is like that kind of social media thing I find a bit challenging
00:26:32.560 um but not so much now in terms of the pain side of things I am usually just pretty honest like
00:26:40.200 if I have to do luckily most of my work is kind of like sitting down but sometimes I do get into
00:26:47.120 a why me kind of headspace and that is difficult when it's like my platform is mostly about being
00:26:54.440 positive so that can be challenging but in terms of the pain stuff luckily it is pretty
00:26:59.900 well managed at the moment which is great I think even just hearing the reality of you being like
00:27:06.500 sometimes you do have days where you're like why me yeah you have that kind of self you know
00:27:12.360 flagellating day where you're like why do I have to go through this even hearing that was really
00:27:16.720 just reassuring in that moment so like that in itself definitely does help I would say
00:27:21.400 at least for me I think as well because my my illness is invisible it's like sometimes when
00:27:29.780 I say I've got arthritis someone's like for for a lot of people they're like associate that with
00:27:34.780 elderly people and to be honest when I go to hospital if I have to go to hospital I'm in the
00:27:38.800 geriatric ward like I get it it's it's not something that is super common so obviously
00:27:45.460 I'm more than happy to speak about it because it has formed this really beautiful community of
00:27:50.140 people with my condition or similar conditions that you know have I've become really good friends
00:27:57.260 with some of them because I didn't know anyone else the most isolating part of the diagnosis
00:28:01.900 was that I'd one never heard of it and two didn't know anyone else I didn't even know where to start
00:28:06.580 looking for a community so I am always happy to speak about it because I just think that
00:28:11.700 anything I can do to make it feel a bit more normal for anyone else I'm happy to do that
00:28:17.460 lovely note brings us to the end of the episode we have one last question for you which is that
00:28:23.980 every week on our podcast we give our listeners recommendation on what they've been or what we've
00:28:28.900 been reading, listening to or watching lately. So can you please share a recommendation that
00:28:33.600 you've been loving lately? Yes, I can. I have been really loving The Imperfects. I'm sure it
00:28:40.020 gets recommended often. I feel so seen in that podcast. I feel like it's such a lovely non-judgmental
00:28:51.440 space for people to be really candid. And I'm also loving But Are You Happy by Claire Stevens.
00:28:58.900 on Mamma Mia I find that that podcast has been very enlightening on some of the people that
00:29:04.620 you know I've never heard them speak in this kind of way before so those two podcasts I'm obviously
00:29:10.160 just in that mental health space at the moment but those two podcasts I feel like are a great
00:29:17.700 way to be in that space but not it doesn't feel heavy it feels really hopeful both of those
00:29:23.220 yeah i love but are you happy it's so good yeah and i only recently started listening to the
00:29:29.320 imperfects and this is actually the first time it's been mentioned on culture club so
00:29:32.760 thank you for bringing it to the table i'm sure a lot of listeners will love it too
00:29:36.580 yeah i think it's like it's one that i really look forward to i feel like it shines a light
00:29:43.040 on things that people are living with and i always just feel really seen and if i'm not
00:29:49.060 feeling sane i'm i'm learning something so yeah i feel better for listening to it yeah and can
00:29:55.040 probably help you as well with your own platform of just listening and listening to other people's
00:30:00.040 yeah problems yeah thank you so much for joining us today lucy if our listeners um are new to you
00:30:07.380 and this is their first introduction um to you where can they find you on the worldwide web
00:30:12.480 Lucy M Neville is my handle on most things I would love to have Lucy Neville but it's
00:30:18.520 that account is there's a photo of a cake and it's got zero zero followers and it follows zero
00:30:24.400 people but now I feel like I'm just Lucy M Neville so it's fine that cake is coming for your throat
00:30:29.900 how annoying as well that it's zero and zero like if it was someone's page you could be like oh okay
00:30:35.080 you got that first but it's just like inactive you're like damn it it's literally an inactive
00:30:39.100 account but that's fine that's fine sometimes people think my name is Lucy Melville so who knows
00:30:45.200 well thank you Lucy M Melville for joining us today on Culture Club well we've so loved having
00:30:55.480 this chat with you thank you always for being so honest and vulnerable on your own pages online
00:31:01.180 but also here on the podcast so yeah thank you for that kind of like warm comforting hug that
00:31:06.820 which I feel like we've just shared.
00:31:09.240 Yeah, thank you.
00:31:11.160 It's such a pleasure to be here.
00:31:12.520 Long time listener.
00:31:14.060 First time.
00:31:15.100 First time call.
00:31:16.180 We're on a call.
00:31:18.080 Bye.
00:31:18.940 See you all.
00:31:19.460 Bye.