Culture Club - What The Hell Is 'Money Dysmorphia'？

00:00:00.000 Australia's first AI radio host. Western fashion is appropriating South Asian style again. And

00:00:14.220 do you suffer from money dysmorphia? I'm Maggie Zhao. And I'm Jasmine Wallace. And you're

00:00:19.480 listening to Culture Club, where we chat about pop culture, current affairs, the internet

00:00:24.280 and our lives. Today we are on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nations.

00:00:33.120 We would like to pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this to any Aboriginal or

00:00:38.620 Torres Strait Islander listeners today. Hello Jazz, how was your long Easter weekend? It went

00:00:48.340 way too fast it was laurie's birthday on friday happy birthday so we actually went to melbourne

00:00:55.200 place the new hotel in it opened up in november um and i love like when you get older and it's

00:01:01.940 your partner's birthday or like your anniversary and like you treat yourself as well like it's

00:01:06.360 your birthday but like i'm getting something out of this so yeah treated him to a nice hotel stay

00:01:10.820 like staycation vibe um ordered room service for the first time in my life what did you get

00:01:15.820 I just got a lentil burger and Laura got a cheeseburger.

00:01:19.440 Sorry. 1.00

00:01:20.860 But a girl never forgets her first room service experience.

00:01:24.180 I only had mine like maybe a year, a year and a half-ish ago

00:01:27.520 and it was a grilled cheese toastie.

00:01:29.400 Yeah.

00:01:29.760 And it's special, right?

00:01:31.080 The little cloche.

00:01:32.380 We didn't get that.

00:01:33.240 But it was like knock, knock, knock and like on a little tray.

00:01:36.080 But I wanted the silver thing.

00:01:37.440 Yeah, cloche, right?

00:01:38.840 A cloche.

00:01:39.180 Well, now you know the lingo.

00:01:40.280 Yeah, now I can request it.

00:01:42.000 Excuse me, do you have a cloche?

00:01:43.180 um so that was kind of like the the main event i guess otherwise went for a nice beach walk with

00:01:50.680 emma yesterday family time watch a lot of movies the comfort faves i always love like an easter

00:01:57.080 comfort movie like julie and julia and when harry met sally and a jane fonda movie called

00:02:03.200 barefoot in the park which is from like the 1960s and then last night laurie and i watched

00:02:07.180 m dial m for murder which is a grace kelly movie from like 1954 so it was lots of kind of like

00:02:13.060 I don't know a culture weekend like your four-day weekend felt like a week and a half just then I

00:02:20.240 know when you work full-time you just gotta like indulge like I wanted to get ahead on so many

00:02:24.360 things like podcast stuff or like personal brand stuff go through like my junk emails like get my

00:02:30.680 life in order go to the gym and then it came to the weekend and I was like I just need to use this

00:02:36.180 time to actually rest and like turn my phone off so I feel well rested I still like the house is

00:02:43.820 still a mess I don't feel as productive as I wanted to I guess but you know you've got to

00:02:48.580 pick and choose I think you do and it's nice how you get to make the most of it what what did you

00:02:53.140 do we because we didn't speak all weekend really I know um the only thing of note really was that

00:02:58.660 with the annual you know Easter egg hunt it's now been reduced to like my mum hiding it and then me

00:03:04.920 and my little sister Katie like finding them downstairs but this time we switched it up a

00:03:09.020 little bit and I hit the eggs and my mum and Katie um went looking and that was really fun and I can't

00:03:15.440 believe that's like my headline for the weekend but low-key it was it was like adrenaline rush

00:03:20.820 it was like an adrenaline wow breaking news on Culture Club I know adrenaline rush from the

00:03:26.360 Easter egg hunt I've got something to start our culture chit chat this week and I've actually got 0.70

00:03:32.440 a white boy of the month to bring up. Yeah? Who is it? I've got a new contender and I am really 0.89

00:03:39.320 surprised at this boy. But guess who's occupying my mind space right now? The guy from Baby Girl.

00:03:46.380 No, he's not for me. But randomly who is currently is Cody Simpson. Oh my god. Famously pop star,

00:03:56.740 famously has dated heaps of famous women. Including Miley Cyrus. Miley Cyrus, famously

00:04:02.160 an olympic swimmer all these things and then now he's popped back up into my for you page because

00:04:07.900 he's uh the lead in guys and dolls which is being performed in sydney but i got this video of like

00:04:14.860 a day my life uh on stage cody simpson and it should have given me the ick but it didn't because

00:04:21.620 it's like full of like wellness and he's like i went like he actually woke up pretty late which

00:04:25.380 i kind of loved but you know he's doing all these like breath work exercises and physical exercise

00:04:30.340 I was like I kind of love this. So why is it now like because he's kind of creating this new

00:04:36.420 accessible personal brand? Yeah well this is the thing I've never been into Cody Simpson like

00:04:41.840 have don't know anything. Did you not have a Cody Simpson face? No never had my face. Okay so this

00:04:46.440 is my face my Cody Simpson face now and there was just something about it which I was like oh yeah

00:04:51.300 he's like so dedicated and I think I'm just so desperate for a blonde pop star. I need like a

00:04:58.400 male pop star to root for so i think that's what's happening well i love that he's a local boy as

00:05:03.400 well have you seen the comments that say that like cody simpson is literally like doing side quests

00:05:09.300 all the time so like from pop child pop star um to olympic swimmer to now broadway star yeah and

00:05:17.180 now social media star as well like he just does it's quite inspiring really like he really just

00:05:22.360 goes for it. He is like the epitome of girl boss, I feel, but in like the most fun, wacky way. So

00:05:29.000 Loki, love you, Cody Simpson. Get him on the pod. Blake, can we make that happen? Cody Simpson

00:05:33.820 interview. When? Our next hit in culture chit chat is about Australia's first AI radio host.

00:05:41.180 I can't wait to talk about this. I made a TikTok about this really quickly as soon as I found this

00:05:45.480 news out because it's been found out that Kedar has been using a AI host unnoticed for the last

00:05:54.920 few months, undisclosed as well. So Kedar is a radio station in Sydney's west and it's owned by

00:06:01.580 one of the country's biggest media companies. Yeah, I remember when they first launched,

00:06:06.540 they had like Flexmami on and they had a lot of really cool talent and to be specific, a lot of

00:06:13.020 cool like poc people fronting like their shows and now they have work days with thigh so it might

00:06:20.860 look like any other radio program but the host presents four hours of hip-hop and is actually

00:06:27.680 artificial intelligence i first saw this i think came up on my twitter feed and it made me so 0.81

00:06:34.200 angry and actually sick that i couldn't even like dive into it i was just like are you freaking

00:06:40.380 serious. And then I just kind of kept scrolling because I was like, this makes me so mad. Like

00:06:45.680 so many journalists, so many media people are losing their jobs. It's like a joke that you

00:06:50.940 haven't worked in media unless you've been made redundant. Now we have AIDJs instead of just like 1.00

00:06:55.700 paying someone to do this shift. And like so many young, especially like Western Sydney people

00:07:01.500 probably would want to like have that opportunity regardless of whether it's like late at night or

00:07:06.660 like yeah the ghost shift it's a great leg up into the industry completely and this story was

00:07:12.360 actually broken by a sydney journalist whose name is stephanie coombs and she wrote about it for her

00:07:17.920 sub stack the carpet it was so interesting because she got a tip off but then she kind of literally

00:07:23.340 investigated this story by listening you know to a few of the shows and realizing that oh the way

00:07:28.660 that she said a couple words sound the same and she literally like got the audio bite and lay them

00:07:33.940 on top of each other and looked at the sound bars for her and be like, oh, that's exactly the same.

00:07:37.680 Like, isn't that interesting? And she did a few other kind of experiments. But yeah, Arn Media,

00:07:43.960 who is a big company who owns Cater, have kind of admitted to this now.

00:07:51.200 So how did they admit to it?

00:07:52.980 Yeah. So Whispers were building after Stephanie's Substack and a few media publications reported on

00:07:58.760 it. But this was over the long weekend. So it's been quite a slow kind of burn. But they did

00:08:04.820 actually make a statement admitting to using AI. They were saying things like, you know,

00:08:10.700 we're at the forefront of innovation. We just like want to try all new things kind of thing.

00:08:15.320 But to me, the most dystopian part of the story is that Thay is kind of a real person. So the

00:08:21.820 thing is, the voice and the photo that's being used is actually from someone who works in their

00:08:27.280 finance department so they've obviously would have given permission yeah but I'm like girl how

00:08:32.920 much did you get paid like what is the deal there to like use your image in perpetuity basically

00:08:37.960 yeah like make money off your image and your voice I just think it's really sets us a precedent and

00:08:43.620 it's like a really slippery slope this also isn't the first time that an AI radio host has been used

00:08:49.640 as state-funded station in Krakow in Poland actually fired its journalists and started using

00:08:56.320 AI for all of its programming late in 2024 and then it was reversed a week later after public

00:09:02.700 outcry and a radio station in Oregon in the US also used an AI host based on another presenter

00:09:09.820 in 2023 and another example I think it's a little bit different is the Spotify DJ yeah oh also did

00:09:18.220 you hear the Spotify wrapped they made like a kind of bespoke podcast which was fully AI and

00:09:25.540 it was based on your listening habits did you listen to yours I don't know if I did but I heard

00:09:31.740 other people's and they're all essentially the same so I was like oh yeah it just really creeps

00:09:36.080 me out it's like two robots essentially using your data and then like feeding it back to you

00:09:42.820 in a way that you think is entertaining like I didn't really see anyone else talking about it

00:09:48.300 about that like I don't think anyone cared like who cares to have like this bespoke radio station

00:09:55.440 just for you yeah nobody else for that yeah yeah so with this story in particular ARN is one of the

00:10:00.980 biggest radio networks we have in Australia so they own Kiss they own Gold and they obviously

00:10:06.160 own Cater as well so this is the same kind of parent company that's paying Carl and Jackie O

00:10:12.040 like millions of dollars millions of dollars so this is Cater's situation that's unfolding here

00:10:19.200 is, most of us would assume, a financial decision, right?

00:10:23.320 So they've actually fired so many of their hosts

00:10:26.140 and they're actually down to Thigh, the AI host,

00:10:29.340 and one other real woman that's actually hosting shows 0.99

00:10:33.120 on Cater at the moment.

00:10:34.740 So the thing is, like, yeah, this is a financial,

00:10:38.020 like, I guess, a solution.

00:10:40.060 But Stephanie Coombs has also pointed out that AI,

00:10:43.280 you know, costings are high.

00:10:45.220 Like, this wouldn't have been a cheap undertaking too.

00:10:47.800 Also, have we noticed that Psy is meant to be a woman of colour? 1.00

00:10:50.820 She's an Asian woman. 0.98

00:10:51.880 Yeah. 1.00

00:10:52.300 And like rather than hiring an Asian woman, they've just created one. 0.95

00:10:56.800 Like why also is it that she's a woman of colour? 1.00

00:11:00.020 Yeah, that makes me feel sick to be honest. 1.00

00:11:01.720 I hate that.

00:11:02.220 Like if you want to diversify your workplace,

00:11:05.420 then actually hire people who could use the money

00:11:07.620 and like put that back into the economy.

00:11:09.480 It's just I don't understand.

00:11:10.660 Like I don't understand who wants this aside, like all AI stuff,

00:11:14.440 aside from the like tech oligarchs and like we are just slowly like implementing it into our

00:11:20.620 lives and it's going to become harder and harder to like avoid it but I think generative AI and

00:11:27.540 things like this they're just like we don't need them like how is this helping society

00:11:31.880 in my opinion aside from lining the pockets of already wealthy companies

00:11:37.680 South Asian clothing has been pulled into the fashion limelight recently and has once again

00:11:47.940 become the subject of cultural appropriation discourse but let's take you back and recap

00:11:53.240 the main controversies because sadly there have been many I do feel like this comes up once or

00:11:59.140 twice a year which is sad we're not learning but last year a controversy referred to as

00:12:04.780 Scandinavian summer hit the fashion rental company Bipdi. The video has now been deleted,

00:12:11.020 but we'll play you a snippet. What are we classifying this wedding guest vibe as? Because

00:12:15.080 I'm literally so upset. Something about the vibe makes it so special. But like,

00:12:19.800 what is this aesthetic called? It's like not Scandinavian summer wedding, but it's very

00:12:25.500 European effortlessly chic, I guess. So many South Asian people were quick to point out that

00:12:31.760 the shawl in question looked like a dupatta, a shawl-like scarf that has centuries-old meaning

00:12:36.460 and importance to South Asian women. Bipti issued an apology from the company's founder in which she

00:12:42.420 said the look was clearly not European and that her quote teammate had not intended to discredit

00:12:48.040 any communities and she added that they are very sorry to the South Asian communities that were

00:12:53.780 offended. And then more recently, Reformation has released a 20-piece collection in collaboration

00:13:00.140 with influencer and entrepreneur Devon Lee Carson. One outfit which is a baby blue midi skirt and a

00:13:07.260 flowy top which is topped off with a long thin scarf has been the focus of conversation with

00:13:12.760 many people pointing out that the outfit looks like a rip-off of a lehenga. A three-piece outfit

00:13:17.820 consisting of a long skirt, a trolley which is a blouse type garment and a du putter. Yeah and I

00:13:25.120 found this so funny because Devin kind of talked to Forbes to try explain the piece and she said

00:13:33.880 that it was a take on a vintage dress by John Galliano who she received from her boyfriend's

00:13:39.760 mother and like it was one of the most precious items in her closet that she wanted to like

00:13:44.100 recreate and like I love that she said that because obviously John Galliano is one of like

00:13:48.800 the most revered designers of our time but he's also the most racist like the most racist dare I

00:13:53.960 even say oh really yeah he's got like some of the worst racist like allegations oh my god I think he

00:13:59.920 actually went to prison like he was there was this time in Paris this was like a decade ago where he

00:14:04.440 just went on a full tirade against someone who he thought was Jewish who wasn't and an Asian person

00:14:11.060 and literally like the cops like he was the cops are called on him and they didn't even know that

00:14:16.020 he was a famous designer it was just like there's this guy who's being super racist anyway I didn't

00:14:21.000 know that. Yeah, don't forget it. Well, now you know. Now I'm going to do a deep dive on John

00:14:25.220 Galliano. But back to the Reformation sitch, a spokesperson from the brand told New York Times

00:14:32.100 that the brand respects, quote, the origin of this criticism given South Asian culture's influence

00:14:38.180 on Western style and said that, quote, no item of clothing or trend can be considered in isolation

00:14:44.740 without broader historic or cultural precedent. So this conversation has happened a few times and

00:14:50.940 it's come up again on tiktok recently when opolly posted a video on tiktok of one of their dresses

00:14:57.580 that south asian commenters said had a strong resemblance to a sharara which is another

00:15:03.020 traditional outfit it's funny because at the start of this segment you were saying that you know we

00:15:07.780 have this conversation time and time again i literally dug up an article i wrote in 2019 when

00:15:12.860 i was at uni about the cultural appropriation um and in it i like pulled out a definition of

00:15:20.280 cultural appropriation which has been defined by American lawyer Suzanne Scafardi and she says it

00:15:26.620 is quote the taking of intellectual property traditional knowledge cultural expressions or

00:15:31.940 artifacts from someone else's culture without permission and then you know also making a note

00:15:38.040 that more often than not the property is taken from marginalized or oppressed minorities so it's

00:15:44.260 like mate we've been having this conversation time and time again it's like low-key so exhausted

00:15:50.240 yeah with this like oh poly outfit and the kind of shawls i've been seeing on tiktok and i like

00:15:58.220 i'm really deep in like kind of bridal wedding culture at the moment so there's like the long

00:16:02.760 thin scarf uh garments that are really in fashion right now so like where's the line between kind of

00:16:11.120 this is like a beautiful stylish outfit that we're gonna like take inspo from versus cultural

00:16:19.140 appropriation is it when it becomes like oh my god this is like Scandi style only like this is

00:16:24.760 so European like what we said at the top or is it just full stop if the garment looks like a South

00:16:30.360 Asian garment then we like then white women shouldn't be wearing it this is a thing because

00:16:35.120 we don't have a clean answer to this because I've heard so many different opinions from South Asian

00:16:41.400 women that are different you know and it's obviously because they're not a monolith even

00:16:46.180 the opinions I hold I'm like well even though I'm a woman of color I'm not South Asian. There was a

00:16:51.360 really good piece in Pedestrian by Varsha Yaman and it is called Scarves, Shaharas and Erasure

00:16:57.500 How Western Fashion Keeps Rebranding South Asian Heritage. We've actually got Varsha to read some

00:17:02.920 of her piece so here she is in her own words. From my perspective as one South Asian woman

00:17:08.240 at a literally billions I have no issue with non-South Asians wearing South Asian clothing 0.63

00:17:13.300 or being inspired by our culture. And of course, fashion, music, and food should be able to bring

00:17:19.300 together various cultures. The issue lies in the fact that there is an existing power imbalance

00:17:24.840 between South Asian and Western culture. With hundreds of years of colonization that have

00:17:29.860 continued to impact South Asians and their connection to culture, it is deeply upsetting

00:17:34.660 to have all the things that were deemed less than or uncivilized suddenly be trending fashion

00:17:39.960 pieces now. When brands like Opoli and Reformation take our culture and decide to profit off it

00:17:45.980 without acknowledgement of the artistry of the history behind these pieces they take the aesthetics

00:17:51.280 of the culture they deem worthy and then its people. This cherry picking from South Asian 0.97

00:17:56.620 culture is very evident when both these brands decided to drop their pieces at a time when

00:18:01.300 racism against South Asians has been flowing online and has grown across the world. Another

00:18:07.340 writer Kriti Gupta wrote for Elle Australia that fast fashion has a problem with co-opting South

00:18:14.000 Asian design and we also had Kriti read out some of the piece in her own words. As a South Asian

00:18:19.860 woman my frustration is deeply personal. My community has long been told that our traditions

00:18:23.980 and clothing were too much. I remember growing up in an environment where if any form of my

00:18:28.180 cultural heritage was shared I was shamed. But somehow it's okay if those same outfits or

00:18:32.740 practices are sold as trendy, boho-chic, or even Scandi statement pieces and led by a white team. 0.51

00:18:38.260 Suddenly, everything from our langas to our dupattas are fashionable, only they're no longer 0.76

00:18:43.380 attached to the cultural significance they once held. They've been stripped of their meaning and

00:18:47.460 sold back to us at a premium. Here's the thing that gets me. When a South Asian person wears a

00:18:52.460 langa or a kurti, they're often seen as too ethnic or out of place. But if the same outfit appears on

00:18:58.000 the runway or an influencer's feed is chic. So this is a thing I think she's bang on at the end

00:19:04.480 it's like who gets to wear these garments and who is praised for wearing these garments and more 0.99

00:19:09.380 often than not it's like say South Asian women aren't and at worst they're even mocked or they're

00:19:15.120 vilified for doing so but when a white woman is she's praised as being stylish you know. Yes you 1.00

00:19:21.220 do see that on TikTok a lot. I do think like at the moment it feels like Scandinavian style is

00:19:27.160 like the pinnacle of the fashion world more so than I don't know Italian style or Parisian style

00:19:34.120 Scandi style has been it feels like it's been having a moment for like years and years so I 0.82

00:19:39.540 can understand why when they begin like pulling quote-unquote inspiration from people of color 1.00

00:19:47.160 that it can become like icky because like they're considered the pinnacle which is like white

00:19:52.240 supremacy essentially right yeah and it's like a weird conversation because it's like

00:19:58.420 it's scandy people aren't saying that it's scandy either it's like americans thinking that anything

00:20:03.120 like cool or different is scandy or european i don't know if you're getting the same for you

00:20:09.560 pages me but i've been seeing this british guy going around to americans and literally just

00:20:14.160 asking them what the capital of england is oh my god yes yeah and none of them are saying london

00:20:19.140 I it's such a rage rate those videos because I always look at them and I'm like sometimes they

00:20:23.680 can be edited yeah but then when they actually like answer the question like oh the capital of

00:20:28.740 blah blah is this and it's like something so random Glasgow or something I'm like oh my god

00:20:35.120 but also back to this issue at hand right I've got my whole for you page talking about South

00:20:41.060 Asian cultural appropriation and I think there's a good point in talking about where to from here

00:20:47.920 because no one likes to be called out for potentially doing something offensive right

00:20:52.140 and I think for me it's it's grappling with why so many people are so afraid to admit that they

00:20:59.540 were wrong or like perhaps what they've done is not the best the best choice I agree and like

00:21:05.620 yeah you can if you get called out like that like you can become defensive because it's embarrassing

00:21:11.260 like I'm sure that a lot of these people who do appropriate this they don't do it in a malicious

00:21:17.180 way right like I mean I can't speak for them but I think sometimes it can be like oh I saw that on

00:21:23.060 this girl on TikTok so therefore I'm gonna wear it and then you have someone in your DMs like um

00:21:26.740 that's actually like cultural appropriation it can be like oh no like I never meant it that way and

00:21:30.940 you get like defensive yeah but it's a really important combo one that we have had a few times

00:21:36.240 but I think every time it comes up like it's just important to remember where these pieces came from

00:21:42.420 So, Mags, where do we go from here? So, Kriti Gupta for Elle said, one, acknowledge the source,

00:21:49.160 two, collaborate with community, that's for brands, and three, be accountable. Like,

00:21:54.880 fess up to your mistakes. It's okay. Not everyone knows everything about every culture,

00:22:00.140 but when you do learn, it's okay to say sorry. And to echo your point, Mags, if you are wearing 0.69

00:22:06.380 a piece that you think might be inspired by other cultures, it kind of is your duty when you're

00:22:11.560 buying things when you're consuming fashion fashion content to just take a minute and think

00:22:17.260 about where this garment has come from what it might be inspired by because like we do have

00:22:21.700 a responsibility when we're putting clothes on our body to go out into the world

00:22:25.320 from caviar bumps to frosted martini glasses new homeware hauls and luxury trips despite what the

00:22:37.160 headlines are shouting about an impending recession on social media it seems that everyone

00:22:41.920 is living it up it's led to financial planners even coining a new term have you heard of the

00:22:48.940 phrase money dysmorphia maggie i haven't that's a new one for the lexicon for me but tell me more

00:22:56.460 it's actually based on the term body dysmorphia which is defined as a mental health condition

00:23:00.960 in which you can't stop thinking about your perceived flaws in your appearance according

00:23:06.720 to the New York Times, money dysmorphia refers to people who have a distorted view of their

00:23:12.400 financial well-being. So for example, you get your pay, you have enough to pay your bills,

00:23:19.480 pay your rent and have a bit left over for fun spending, going out for brunch, etc. But you

00:23:24.860 still believe that you're dead broke. Do you resonate with this term? Yeah, I mean, kind of

00:23:30.640 because it's like what is money to different people and we'll get into it later but I think

00:23:36.760 it definitely has stuff to do with like how money's so secretive and we're not that open about like

00:23:41.420 our savings and what we earn so it's like I literally do not know how like what other people

00:23:47.140 are doing right it's even like with myself or or friends I'm like like so how are we like I wouldn't

00:23:53.480 know where to put me on like a little scale so interesting I feel the opposite tell me I feel

00:24:00.060 like I think that I have like enough money because I because I can like afford to go to Brisbane if

00:24:07.020 I wanted to like getting married um have a little bit of savings but then I talk to people and I'm

00:24:14.340 like oh my god no I actually don't have much money oh my I'm like opposite I'm like I'm so rich guys

00:24:19.740 like I can like go out and get a coffee or like I can go shopping if I wanted to and then I have

00:24:28.200 I have some savings but then I'm like wait is this bad am I like actually like living beyond my means

00:24:32.740 okay no I kind of love that so but this is a thing that I mean about like how no one really knows

00:24:39.800 what they actually are like when it comes to money because I flip-flop I'm sometimes like that but

00:24:44.860 then sometimes I'm like am I doing enough and it's just hard to know what actually helps me sometimes

00:24:49.920 to put things in perspective is like looking at Australian like average super savings or average

00:24:55.540 savings or income right like those kind of solid numbers I'm like oh okay that's where I sit with

00:25:01.900 the majority yeah that is helpful looking at those like actual stats I also feel like a lot of

00:25:08.960 women and peers and friends I feel like we're more transparent about salary than we are about

00:25:15.780 savings so I feel comfortable asking my friend like oh you got a promotion like do you mind me

00:25:21.580 asking like how much your pay rise was or like what salary you're on but if I went to you like

00:25:26.960 Maggie how much you haven't saving I don't think I've ever asked you that because I don't know why

00:25:30.920 does that feel more personal I think I know why because um typically when you're working at a

00:25:36.160 place like your employee or your boss is setting or agreeing to that figure of your like how much

00:25:41.240 income you're bringing in but your savings are so personal that's how you're spending your money or

00:25:44.860 like how much you're putting away which is like it's so personal because it shows a lot about our

00:25:50.320 values but then you also don't want to feel like not great next to your peers or you don't want to

00:25:56.240 feel like you're showing off like either way it's like you don't know what to do well we're not

00:26:02.680 alone in this because a 2024 study found that nearly one third of all americans reported feeling

00:26:08.880 money dysmorphia including 43 percent of gen z okay how did they get that stat when it's like

00:26:17.400 I don't even know this term but anyway um yeah I think we all have a lot of uncertainty

00:26:24.060 about the perception of money and where we all sit with it so like I kind of I kind of see this

00:26:30.420 especially with obviously how lavish social media can be and it's like okay like you guys are getting

00:26:36.700 matches every day like that's expensive that feels expensive to me let alone like holidays or let

00:26:42.560 alone like designer bags and whatnot the cut also explored this in an article titled are we all

00:26:48.500 living beyond our means now by claire lampen and i'll just read a few words from it when world

00:26:55.240 governments seem content to let the planet nuke itself what's the point in saving for the future

00:26:59.900 spend on big experiences while it's still possible to have them see venice before it sinks you may be

00:27:06.080 living beyond your means but at least you're living the piece also talks about how millennial

00:27:11.280 and gen z's since we've been in the workforce we've been marked by global crisis recession

00:27:17.320 pandemic more recession more layoff I was thinking about this the other week I was thinking about the

00:27:23.120 economy as per and I was like I actually googled it I was like has the economy in Australia ever

00:27:28.820 boom since 2014 because I graduated high school 2013 and it was like oh there was a little period

00:27:33.700 in 2014 to 16 but like not like a boom of like the 80s and I was like this is so depressing and

00:27:39.820 i'm also watching sex and city at the moment and seeing their lifestyles in the 90s in new york

00:27:45.340 with carrie writing one column i'm like oh my gosh tell me about it those girls have never 1.00

00:27:51.060 cooked in their kitchens they eat out at every meal how so how do financial experts think that 0.77

00:27:57.640 we should help each other the answer is kind of just talking about money more and like removing

00:28:02.220 that shame right so in the piece they say quote shame shield solutions and to that point they

00:28:08.280 say that like you kind of have to go past social etiquette where you know typically talking about

00:28:13.740 money is rude and we have to try to get beyond that taboo because that taboo is in place I think

00:28:19.180 to benefit like corporations and those in charge because if we're not talking about it then

00:28:22.860 nothing's improving. Have you seen the content that's like what I spend in a day or like how I

00:28:28.060 manage my money on a $80,000 salary? Yeah like kind of like refinery 29 money diary style. Yeah but

00:28:35.920 like on TikTok so like content video creators I think they're really helpful to see like everyone's

00:28:43.020 budgets but it is very personal like really like putting every dollar they spend out there on the

00:28:47.280 internet for people to judge I really like when we have these conversations and when new terms

00:28:53.060 are coined and I think it's a good reminder to just like keep talking about it especially as

00:28:59.240 women we need to like advocate for each other and just be more open about how we're spending our 1.00

00:29:04.940 money. And off mic, I'm going to ask you how much I've been saving after this conversation.

00:29:15.320 It's time for Bookmarked, where we share what we've been watching, reading and listening to.

00:29:20.700 Maggie, what have you been indulging in over the long weekend?

00:29:23.780 I have been watching a few YouTube videos. I've actually been on assignment and been writing

00:29:28.320 quite a few features recently. And I am like very nice to myself when I work. I like take

00:29:34.240 breaks as I work and that can sometimes mean just like watching a few YouTube videos like in between

00:29:38.700 and what I've been watching recently is Bon Appetit's YouTube series called On The Line

00:29:45.280 and yeah Bon Appetit's a bit problematic so do with that what you will but this series follows

00:29:51.660 chefs in restaurants and kind of like time stamps their day and they talk through kind of everything

00:29:57.100 that they're doing kind of like the bear style and two videos I have really enjoyed recently was

00:30:03.400 one called a day with a chef making new york city's best school lunch and another one called

00:30:08.800 a day in brooklyn's legendary 100 year old diner so really fascinating and nice kind of like

00:30:15.380 insights into like the behind the scenes in hospo in hospo worlds um yeah so complimentary like why

00:30:24.280 are you becoming a food writer like working at broadsheet as well yeah so true so so true um but

00:30:30.080 Like, I think I'm so fascinated with the food world.

00:30:32.460 And, yeah, I think it's because I've never worked in hospital.

00:30:34.800 So I've, like, romanticised it.

00:30:36.220 Yeah.

00:30:37.720 As someone who worked in hospital for seven years, yeah.

00:30:40.520 No, there is an element of glamour to it, I think.

00:30:43.780 Fun fact, I used to work with Andy Cooks.

00:30:46.360 Oh, my God.

00:30:46.560 So random.

00:30:47.360 Love that.

00:30:47.960 He was head chef at St. Ali and I was the head pass girl.

00:30:51.120 So I was, like, the head waitress who would, like,

00:30:53.600 delegate dishes to the other waitresses and waiters.

00:30:56.360 And Andy was, like, on the other side of the pass.

00:30:58.280 So now I see them on like on YouTube on ads for like Boss Coffee.

00:31:01.560 I'm like, Andy.

00:31:03.120 So yeah, so there are elements that can be like really glam.

00:31:08.300 But love that.

00:31:09.160 I will watch because I'm actually in my YouTube era at the moment.

00:31:12.000 I'm watching a lot of vloggy kind of things.

00:31:14.580 But that's a fun one to add to the list.

00:31:17.760 And they're like 15 minute bites as well.

00:31:19.720 Perfect.

00:31:20.460 Jazz, what are you recommending for us this week?

00:31:22.660 I have been wanting to talk about this for like months,

00:31:25.540 but I've been waiting until it was closer to the release date but I recommend Ritual by Chloe

00:31:31.680 Elizabeth Wilson. So the published date is May 6th so really soon get your pre-order in but it's the

00:31:37.940 debut novel from Australian writer and Shameless's podcast researcher Chloe. The book features all

00:31:44.580 the themes that you and I love talking about on the podcast so feminism, beauty standards, even

00:31:50.040 friendship, career conversations and it's set in Melbourne and I feel like Melbourne is its own

00:31:56.300 character in this book. I will share a little about the plot. It follows the protagonist Marnie

00:32:02.060 Selick who is an adrift 20 something when she lands a coveted and mysterious job at beauty brand 0.97

00:32:08.460 Ritual Cosmetica. The founder and CEO Luna takes a liking to Marnie and as the two grow closer

00:32:15.080 Marnie kind of becomes intoxicated by the life that this beauty brand can give her but it's not

00:32:21.600 all what it seems so it examines identity beauty desire as well so a lot going on but it's a really

00:32:29.220 great read it's really fun I feel like it's quite like while it has kind of like heavier themes it's

00:32:34.620 still got a bit of lightness bit of comedy like laugh out loud moments as well um kind of thriller

00:32:40.200 comedy as well so highly recommend the book and we are actually interviewing chloe in a live

00:32:47.180 podcast recording at this year's melbourne writers festival that's on may 9th so nab your tickets now

00:32:53.160 and promise that we're not just spruiking our own show like we really do recommend this book and we

00:32:58.760 enjoyed reading it a lot so there you go grab ritual yeah it's such a good read i can't wait

00:33:04.980 for it to drop so we can all just talk about it that's all we have time for in this week's

00:33:09.820 episode of culture club thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time bye

Culture Club - April 23, 2025

What The Hell Is 'Money Dysmorphia'？

Episode Stats

Transcript