Ladies, We Need To Talk

Imagine going down on a woman for the very first time in your 50s. Yumi Stynes meets later-in-life lesbians who, after years of hetero partnerships and raising kids, are coming out. Were they always attracted to women or can our sexuality shift?Featured in this episode: Dr Lisa Diamond Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies, University of Utah.Call: 1300 641 222 | Email: [email protected]

What's it like to watch your partner have sex with another person? What about a group of people? Welcome to the world of swingers, where couples "play" with each other and with the boundaries of sexual expression. Join Yumi Stynes at a sex club as she pulls back the orgy room curtain and meets women who swing to find out why they love 'The Lifestyle' and how it's transformed their relationships.With special thanks to Juliet Richters, Honorary Professor of the Sexual Health Program at the Kirby Institute. Thanks also to Jess Cattelly from Our Secret Spot.

Welcome to season six of Ladies, We Need to Talk. This time around we're turning the steam up to 11, dropping our towels and baring all. Join Yumi Stynes as she learns the ins-and-outs of swinging; meets later-in-life lesbians; finds out what it's like to be asexual and talks to women who've gone from having ho-hum sex to mind-blowing romps. It's hot and hilarious and we're here for it. Call us on 1300 641 222 or email [email protected]. Follow in your fave podcast app so you never miss an episode.

Sex is more available and permissible than ever before, but despite this, are we actually getting any pleasure? Lots of women still don’t feel entitled to sexual fulfillment and aren’t in touch with what feels good, let alone how to ask for it.

We know you love the podcast and now there’s Ladies We Need to Talk the book!

For some women, reaching climax, cumming, the Big O... is as easy as a walk around the block. For others, it’s an arduous, long, steep hike up a mountain, never quite reaching...the “peak”.

Thanks to the pandemic, we now spend even MORE time doom scrolling through obnoxiously perfect Insta-people, and endlessly staring at our own faces via zoom than ever and (surprise, surprise) it's had a negative impact on our self-esteem. Yumi Stynes catches up with body image and eating disorder expert, Dr Gemma Sharpe, about "zoom dysmorphia" and what can we do to feel better about ourselves, one video call at a time.

You're more likely to meet your partner on an app than any other way. But between the constant swiping, messaging, rejections, ghosting and d&*k pics, it can be rough. Yumi Stynes talks to a bunch of awesome single women about their approach to dating apps and how to stay sane, safe and maintain your self-esteem while swiping.

Forget juice cleanses, meditation and yoni eggs, is a sex detox the best way to reset our thinking around sex and relationships to find out what really presses our buttons? Yumi Stynes talks to women who have flipped the script on sex, who've hit the pause button and are feeling better for it. Featured in this episode: Catherine Gray — Author of The Unexpected Joy of Being Single.

Ladies, it's time for a refresher course on foreplay! Yumi Stynes talks to psychotherapist Esther Perel and a bunch of brilliant female experts about their best foreplay tips. We're here to talk about it. Ring us on 1300 641 222 or email [email protected].

"Have a baby," they said. "It'll be great," they said. But what they didn't say, was that getting that kid out could leave you traumatised. Physically and mentally.One in three Australian women describe their birth as traumatic. Yumi Stynes hears how different women are still coming to terms with their birth experiences, sometimes years later, and finds out what can be done to prevent traumatic births.

On every form you ever fill out, there’s always a tick box about your romantic status — de facto, married, single. Why are we only judged on romantic relationships rather than some of the most important bonds in our life — our friendships? Yumi Stynes writes a love letter to our friends and casually invites herself into the wonderful friendship of Jamila Rizvi and Clare Bowditch.

You can't help who you fall in love with. But what happens if your family disapproves? Every relationship has its challenges, but for lovers from a completely different cultural and ethnic background, Yumi Stynes finds out that race, religion and tradition can add multiple layers of complication.Featured in this episode: Dr Reenee Singh, Psychologist and Systemic Psychotherapist specialising in Intercultural couples.

What happens if you're young and that #1 person, the special love that you searched for and pinned down, the one you expected to love till you were old — dies early? It's painfully lonely to be a young person grieving, but that loneliness can be compounded by the judgement of others on how to grieve.Yumi Stynes talks to Ellidy Pullin, and other young widows, about life after death.Support services:Grief.org.auLifeline.org.auBeyondblue.org.au

What happens if you want a baby but you're running out of time? Maybe you haven't found the right partner, or you've found the right one, but they don't want kids? You just can't seem to get pregnant or you're simply too busy having an awesome life and heaps of fun to have a baby. And then suddenly, your 'fertile window' starts to close.Yumi Stynes finds out what it's like to have one last shot at pregnancy.Featured in this episode: Dr Karin Hammarberg (VARTA), Senior research fellow, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University.Fertility resources: yourIVFsuccess.com.au; VARTA; yourfertility.org.au

Have you noticed that most women have long hair, and most men have short hair? And how grey-haired men are silver foxes and women old and witchy?What's with these unspoken hair rules? And why the hell are we conforming? Yumi Stynes gets to the root of why women's hair is such a big deal and teases out why we're so tangled up in knots about our locks.Featured in this episode: Author Tara Moss; Kellie Scott @Hairlossboss; Shantel Wetherall, Host of Hey Aunty podcast.

Nearly one million Australian women live with persistent pain in their pelvis. Yumi Stynes finds out what the hell it is, what causes it and most importantly, how to get through the day with a raging pelvis. If you need help dealing with your pelvic pain, www.pelvicpain.org.au has loads of helpful advice. Featured in this episode: Dr Susan Evans, Gynaecologist and Pelvic Pain Physician; Gabrielle Jackson, Associate News Editor of Guardian Australia and author of Pain and Prejudice.

Saggy boobs, cracked vaginas, being invisible, loneliness. Getting older can't all be this grim? CAN IT?!? Yumi Stynes finds out how to stay awesome, mentally and physically, as the years tick by and the mammaries get lower ... and it's not all bad news for our sex lives — HOORAY! With thanks to the amazing group of women at the Bowral Country Women's Association. Featured in this episode: Professor Cassandra Szoeke, Director of the Healthy Ageing Program at the University of Melbourne; Dr Katherine Campbell, Psychologist; Dr Wendy Vanselow, women's health GP and sex therapist; Faith Agugu, founder of Silver Sirens.

What really turns you on? Getting your toes sucked? Latex? High-heeled shoes? Fetish is a word that can be overused without us really thinking about its meaning. Sexologist Dr Sarah Ashton helps us figure out what a fetish actually is, where fetishes come from and why it's A-OK to have one. We'll also find out what it's like to be the object of someone else's fetish.

Ladies! Listen up: we're back and we've missed you! Join Yumi Stynes as she dives right in to all the taboo lady-business that women find tricky to talk about. Whether it's your fetish, what the hell happens to us in old age or dealing with the rage in our pelvis — Ladies, we've got your back. We love your feedback so please leave us a voicemail on 1300 641 222 or email [email protected]. Follow Ladies, We Need To Talk now so you never miss an episode, oh, and tell ALL your girlfriends.

Sex, babies, periods, discharge. Our vaginas do a lot. But how well do you really know your vagina? Get comfy for a guided tour of your vagina with Dr Elizabeth O'Farrell. Plus, you'll meet Deanna, owner of possibly the world's most adventurous vagina, and Louise, who learnt something about her vagina at 53 that completely changed her life.

Pubic hair — it's one of the most scrutinised patches of hair on our bodies. Research says 80 per cent of women groom their hair regularly. But why? What's really behind our choices? Data journalist Mona Chalabi muses on the perceived link between women's pubes and our sanity. Podcaster Maeve Marsden and comedian Christina Zheng debate to pube or not to pube.

Monogamy is the default, but for lots of people it doesn't work. More and more people are actively looking for alternatives to monogamy, according to research. So why are many of us abandoning monogamy in favour of polyamorous and open relationships?

It can take months or years to get through a breakup, and the fallout can be totally devastating. Whether it's money, legal stuff, kids, or all the feelings, we're giving you practical tools to break up well and flourish afterwards. Writer Zoe Foster Blake teaches us how we can keep our dignity in a breakup and see it as a 'gift'.

Warning: explicit content. One in five women in Australia has had anal sex. It's everywhere in porn and many of us, especially young women, are feeling the pressure to do it. It's uncomfortable discussing anal sex, so let's talk about it. Dr Nikki Goldstein sets out how to negotiate anal sex including consent and Professor Cicely Marston tells us how anal sex typically plays out for young people.

A movement's begun to expose the mental load women shoulder. All that relentless, unpaid, thankless and invisible work women do. Naming it is powerful, right? But we want solutions! Author Eve Rodsky breaks down the mental load and teaches you how to spread the mental load more evenly with our partners — hallelujah!

One in four Australian women have experienced emotional abuse from a partner. You don't get physically hurt, but psychologically it's devastating and it erodes your identity and trust in yourself. Hear from Investigative Journalist Jess Hill and Inez Carey from 1800 Respect about how you can recognize, and stop, emotional abuse.

When most of us picture our clitoris, we think of it as being the size of a tiny jellybean. But sisters, your clitoris is so much more than that! It's going to blow your mind just how amazing the clitoris is. You'll hear from the woman who 'discovered' it, Australian doctor, Helen O'Connell.

Women are pretty bad at saying no — we're socialised to please and serve others. Author of F*** No!, Sarah Knight, political commentator Jamilla Rizvi and emotional intelligence coach Rachel Green are going to teach you how to say no, and do it unapologetically.

Caring for partners is something women do well and often. But what's the limit, how do you know if your support is causing more harm than good and how do you do it without sacrificing yourself? We speak to women propping up their partner through issues like depression, addiction and suicide. Lifeline: 13 11 14Beyond Blue: 1300 22 46 361800 Respect:1800 737 732

You'd think a pandemic would stop all romance and the dating game. But it's seen an acceleration of relationships and romance as some single people panic bought partners like toilet paper. Ladies Producer Cassandra Steeth takes a look at love in the time of coronavirus and lets us peek into her new relationship too.

It's no secret women spend way more time, energy and hard-earned cash on our appearances than men do. But what else could we be firing our mental bullets at if we weren't so worried about what the hell we looked like? Researcher, Dr Phillipa Deidrichs, says the focus many of us place on what we see in the mirror is stopping us from fully functioning.

Guess who is way worse off in pandemics? Yup — women. While we're leading the charge on the frontline by slogging away in jobs like nursing, teaching and aged care, our purses are copping a flogging now and into the future. More women than men have lost their jobs during this crisis and there are no prizes for picking who does the lion's share of home-schooling. COVID-19 is creating a gendered storm of pandemic proportions (sorry, we couldn't help ourselves).The good news is, other women are the ones helping us through this crisis. Gender inclusion commentator, Amy Haddad, says we have some very finely honed skills in just shovelling through shit. And, you know, we just keep on shovelling.

Most of us have a secret we've never told anyone. Secrets are self-protective and universal, but some are hard to keep and impossible to share. If your secret is eating you up or has the propensity to blow up your entire life — should you share it? Are secrets better out than in? Dr Katie Greenaway says it depends. Psychotherapist Gillian Straker walks us through the shame some secrets bring and what kinds we're keeping from ourselves.

What if you could read something that would radically change your sex life and your whole relationship dynamic? What if, a few pages could actually make you feel like sex with your long-term partner?Cue the case for erotic literature — the nerdy aphrodisiac you didn't know you needed. Low sex drive affects many of us, including Sally, who says erotica has increased her libido 10-fold. You'll also hear from Kate Cuthbert from the Victorian Writers Centre and Gina Gutierrez from an audio-erotica company on how erotica is evolving.

While one in three women will experience anxiety in normal circumstances, when COVID-19 hit, for many it was the first time they'd ever felt anxious. And for many of us, that feeling isn't going away because there's a lot to be anxious about - pandemics, climate change, money, kids and the list goes on. To help, we're revisiting an episode we did in season 2 in which Dr Charlotte Keating coaches us through climate change anxiety. Her advice is super relevant for if you're feeling anxious. Lifeline: 13 11 14 Beyond Blue: 1300 22 46 36 Headspace: 1800 650 890

Whether you're juggling working at home with kids or figuring out how to pay rent as a single mum after losing your job — life just got a whole lot tougher for women. Many women are on the front line of fighting coronavirus at home and self-isolation is feeling like total chaos. In the first episode of season 4 Yumi Stynes dives into your corona shitshow and talks with clinical psychologist Dr Jacqui Winship about ways you can make lockdown a little more bearable.

You’ll have heard of the glass ceiling — the invisible barrier that stops women getting ahead at work. For women of colour, that ceiling is actually concrete. And while you can (sometimes) shatter a glass ceiling, the concrete ceiling is a much tougher barrier to smash. At a live recording of Ladies, We Need To Talk, Yumi Stynes speaks with a panel of brilliant women about what it’s like looking up at the concrete ceiling. Our guests were Professor Sujatha Fernandes, Shy Magsalin and Shyamla Eswaran.This episode is a part of the ABC’s Australia Talks project, which aims to find out what Australians are really thinking and feeling, and uses those findings to help us all learn something about each other.

Boobies, tits, cans, your rack. Ladies, we want to celebrate your boobs. Despite what the beauty mags tell you, boobs come in all shapes and sizes. Some are big, some small, some are great at breastfeeding, others are not. Some women love their boobs, others get new ones. This episode talks about, and celebrates, all the boobs.

There’s a whole lot of mythology around the so-called sacred mother-daughter bond, but it isn’t always reality. Mumming is hard work. It’s a tonne of unpaid emotional and physical labour, and mums don’t always get it right. We speak to women who’ve navigated very fraught relationships with their mums.

One in five Australian women over the age of 15 have experienced sexual violence. 1.4 million Australians have lived through childhood sexual abuse.So if that’s you, how do you find the courage to be intimate again? For this episode we speak to women who’ve struggled to have sex after sexual assault, and others who now have a healthy sex life.Life Line: 13 11 141800 Respect: 1800 737 732

Around four million Australians have had an STI at some point in their life, but who ever talks about it? STI’s are shrouded in loads of shame, secrecy and regret. And it’s not just young people getting them — women in their 30s and 40s get them too. In fact, the number of older people getting them is actually growing. We smash the stigma and learn that women living with an STI aren’t alone.

Women are still expected to be primary caregivers — but what happens when they choose to walk away from this role? In season one we heard from women who "broke the motherhood contract". They were no longer living with their kids and felt society judged them harshly for it. We check back in to see how those women are going now.

At a certain point in life, making friends gets trickier and feels super awkward. Many of us want and need new friends though — so how do you do it? At a live recording of Ladies, We Need To Talk, Yumi Stynes and a panel of amazing women chat about why having good friends is so important and give advice for making new ones.

Do you feel embarrassed if you have to poo in public? You're not alone. Whether it's poo, farts, discharge or sweat — women are constantly self-conscious about our odour because it's considered 'unladylike' to smell. But if everyone on the planet needs to poo to survive, why do we have such poo shame? And if poo is on top of the list of things we feel awkward talking about, how do we know when something's going wrong with our bowels? So, Ladies, let's talk about poo.

How do you tell a mate your friendship isn't working? Or a partner you can't stand the way they kiss? Hard conversations are tough to have but sometimes necessary. Psychotherapist Esther Perel is the world's best known couples counsellor and she gives Yumi a lesson on how to navigate difficult conversations.

We're totally spoilt for choice when it comes to birth control. There are 12 different types of contraception to choose from and about 30 different brands of the pill. Having all these options is awesome, but how do you know you've chosen the right one for you?

In season one, we looked at why so many Australian women drink at risky levels. Yumi Stynes revealed her battle with drinking and quit alcohol. We also met Jo, who drank at really risky levels. This episode, we check back in, to see how they're going, plus show you how to cut down your drinking if you'd like to sub the wine for kombucha.

Grow up, find a partner, have kids — we’ve been doing it for thousands of years. But more and more women are choosing to ignore that path. And the latest research says they’re actually happier for it. So why do we judge women without kids?

Have you ever felt like a massive failure when you've looked in the mirror or felt depressed about the size of your thighs? You're not alone — research says almost 80 per cent of Australian women are unhappy with their weight. And nearly one million Australians have an eating disorder, most of them, women. What can we do to feel better about our bodies?