This is a conversation that Em has been wanting to give you for ages, she even made it onto the wall of peeps Emsolation are obsessed over during our recent live Christmas special. As regular listeners to Emsolation would know, Em and Michael have a rather large obsession with Melissa Leong and her co-hosts on Masterchef. In fact, there’s entire sections of the podcast devoted to how she manages to eat the food Masterchef contestants deliver, without making us want to cringe, that’s an actual skill in itself. Melissa is also a skilled pianist who was actually on track to go to a conservatorium of music, she’s also a former athlete with a bunch of degrees and she’s high on Em’s list of people you need to know more about. As Em describes her “she’s a fully formed, raw, emotional, intelligent, authentic human who’s genuinely trying to do her best in the world”. This conversation is filled to the brim with amazing insight, and will leave you thankful that she exists and is out in the world doing her thing. Em does reveal to Melissa how obsessed we all are by her graceful TV eating, which is met with a very subdued and not at all creeped out thanks. They also discuss some behind the scenes moments from the upcoming season of Masterchef and how they both approach the world as openly and honestly as they can. It’s an amazing chat that covers so many incredible topics and we promise you’ll come out the other side of it feeling like you’ve learnt heaps and be in a better place because of it. So nestle into your favourite relaxing space and plug in for another entertaining edition of our summer series of life changing conversations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s bonus episode time, ya huh we’re dropping an extra episode this week, which is why we’re sitting here awaiting your listening pleasure on a Tuesday! I know right, so exciting, anyway this naturally means that Em will be back, as per usual, on Thursday for an amazing little chat with Melissa Leong from Masterchef. Today though it’s all about giving Em’s high school bestie, Michael Lucas a chance to get his chat on with one of his friends and coworkers, Stephen Peacocke. Stephen came to prominence for Aussie viewersplaying a local river boy called Brax on the TV soap ‘Home and Away’. Michael knows him better from playing the characters he created for his own shows, like tradie Ben on the drama series ‘Five Bedrooms’ and as the ex AFL player turned sport reporter, Rob Rickards on Michael’s award winning series ‘The Newsreader’. Stephen is an actual unicorn according to Michael and his costar Kat Stewart, you’ll find out why plus hear more about how he got to where he is now. You’ll also get to hear Michael reveal his theory on why he’s still so down to earth, even though he’s won multiple Logies and appeared in major Hollywood movies. There’s even some behind the scenes goss from the forthcoming season of ‘Five Bedrooms’. So find your favourite chill out zone and prepare to get to know the man behind some of Australian TV’s favourite knockabout blokes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to a very special series of life changing chit chats to get you through the Christmas and New Year period. Over the next few weeks Em Rusciano (and Michael Lucas does one all by himself too) sit down for a series of amazing conversations with incredible people whose power and magic they want you to experience. All of them have a stack of experience and wisdom that’s worth sharing, so we’re super excited to deliver them to you over the next four weeks. We begin with Anthony Field, he’s a musician, actor, songwriter and producer, who is better known as the leader of ‘The Wiggles’, or the Blue Wiggle. He naturally had a huge influence on Em’s life, not only by helping to entertain her three children as part of The Wiggles, but also for his honest and open conversations about his battle with chronic pain and depression. So settle in for a wide and varied chat between the self described Leopard Print Wiggle and the original Blue Wiggle, Anthony Field. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the podcast edition of the very first LIVE episode of Emsolation, yes our Sunday Crowdcast of ‘A Very Emsolation Christmas’ LIVE has been converted into this magnificent montage of audio delights. Obviously if you weren’t there to witness this special one off event, we’ve got you covered…mostly. Naturally there were a few moments that only worked visually, hence they don’t appear, plus Em and her band performed hits from her appearance on ‘The Masked Singer’ and a bunch of Christmas tunes as well, but we can’t include them either because of copyright issues. So really, if you wanna experience the entire thing, you’ve still got until this Sunday to buy a ticket and watch it before it disappears forever, link in the bio of the Emsolation Podcast page on Instagram. Inside this special Xmas edition of the podcast you’ll hear more behind the scenes goss about Michael’s time at the AACTA Awards, plus Em gives Michael the chance to give the speech he would have given, if he’d actually won his nomination for best writing. Then we move through a grab bag of spicy treats, all worthy of pleasuring your ear canals. We start with the glorious news that Pete Davidson has been spending time with Miley Cyrus. It should be no surprise to any of us that both Em and Michael are mad keen for them to hook up for reals, and for Pete to call it quits on continuing to contractually pretend he’s dating Kim Kardashian. Then we gotta talk through the return of ‘Sex and the City’ with the debut of the new spin off series ‘And Just Like That’, which despite Em and Michael’s assurances would remain spoiler free, actually ends up becoming a huge spoiler filled rant, with a totes realistic and honest clapback for anyone who still thinks they can live on this planet and avoid all the spoilers, NOT. EVER. GONNA. HAPPEN. We also talk through 50 Cent trying to sex shame Madonna, which eventually opened up a very confronting can of worms for lovers of Nancy Reagan, and quite easily the comment of the podcast from one Michael Lucas, you’ll know it when you hear it. Once we’ve gathered ourselves back into some form of composure, it’s onto the Emsolation Awards of 2021, where Em and Michael will go through the nominees and announce the winners of three standout categories for Emsolators. They are ‘Best Conspiracy of 2021’, the equally important ‘Best Performance by a Penis in 2021’ and finally they’ll announce the ‘Overall Winner of 2021’. Lastly, to see ourselves out, Em and Michael get a chance to answer a few tricky questions, as requested from Emsolators as they watched the recording live. So grab your headphones and settle in for the kind of Christmas celebration you’d expect, when your sassy Auntie, and her camp best friend, rock up with a few gins under their belts, and decide not to take any prisoners in their efforts to make sure this family gathering is as chaotic and glorious as we all crave it to be. Job well done and Merry Christmas lovelies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yaaaas, we are an award winning podcast and it’s all thanks to YOU! We wanna give massive props and thanks to each one of our lovely Emsolators who took the time out to slip a vote in for Emsolation in the People’s Choice Award category at the 2021 Australian Podcast Awards. We’re excited to announce we came 2nd, which clearly isn’t the top slot, but we actually don’t even care, the fact that our audience got us to the second posy is a win for us, so huzzah for that. Naturally we’ll start this episode off with a bit of one on one time with Em, she’s got more thanks to deliver into your ears, plus a full rundown of all the planning she’s been doing for the Live Christmas Spectacular ‘A Very Emsolation Christmas’ we’re delivering this weekend. She’s also keen to reflect the fact that her high school bestie and co-host of this podcast, Michael Lucas, was about to head off to his version of the Oscars, to see if his TV show ‘The Newsreader’ can win most of the 16 nominations they’ve secured in the 2021 AACTA Award. You’ll find out the end result within the podcast, Em made sure she took time out to record an update with highlights for the latter part of the podcast. Before all of that though Em needs to talk pre-award show jitters with Michael, they both have nervous reactions to the pressure of an award night, some more than others. So expect an explosive update on how both their bodies conspire against them, there will be blowouts of the worst possible kind to reflect on, so prepare yourself for more groin related chit chat, standard. Em will also take us through some of the behind the scenes heckers moments from her time in Sydney at the Australian Podcast Awards. There was an ex breakfast show co-host in the room, way too many podcasters squeezed together in a super spreader scenario, and the number of wines a mum usually consumes when she’s freed from her family for 48 hours. If you haven’t heard the highlights from Em’s time on stage presenting two awards, you’ll get all the best and most chaotic bits within. Then we gotta talk about all the fiercely talented women who are all being tipped for an Oscar next year, there’s Lady Gaga in the House of Gucci, Nicole Kidman being Lucille Ball, Kirsten Stewart doing Lady Di and a bunch of others all being touted as the next big winner. Obviously Em and Michael are at fever pitch already, they might need sedating ahead of the actual event, Em even locks in a rock solid prediction on who will eventually take out the Academy Award. There’s also some more love to pour on the show ‘Succession’ and in particular the actor who plays the troubled son Kendall Roy, Jeremy Strong. Em and Michael are both in awe and totally shook by what he brings to the role, so expect much frothing over him and his quirky traits. Finally you’ll get an extra appearance from Em as she delivers all the updates and highlights from Michael’s wins at the AACTA Awards. So prepare to send your ears to a place that’s decked out in wall to wall red carpets, an explosive bleed now and then and random celebrity name dropping at every turn too. Trust us, you’ll be exhausted from trying to pick them all up, boom tish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hands up who wants more wang chat? Hope your hand goes up because we are about to deliver some whether you like it or not. Sorry, not actually sorry, we promise you’ll enjoy it, but first we need to talk about some other stuff. Like how would Em choose to describe this podcast to someone who’d never heard it before, her brilliant and on point description is where you’ll witness your very first dick mention, the rest are much later in the episode. To start out we need to acknowledge that Em and Michael were actually in the room, face to face for this recording. The dynamics are all different, they can see each other, it was later in the evening, some wines had been consumed, there was some low key spikiness in the air, and Em hadn’t done her usual level of research and prep beforehand. Did someone say loose? They sure did...HUZZAH! We have to talk through the options Michael presented Emsolators with for his appearance at The AACTA Awards in Sydney next week. A choice has been made, not everyone is happy, but there is talk of a Ru-veal (which, for those not across ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’, and all it’s abundant worldwide spin offs, is another way of saying a reveal is going to be made, except this one is branded around RuPaul’s name, kind of how ‘The Block’ changes everything to ‘block-o-clock’, ‘blocktacular’ and ‘block-OFF!’) so we will wait to see what happens on the big night and reveal all in next week's episode. There’s a brand new Covid variant that’s arrived in Sydney, this one comes with the rather ominous name of Omicron. Em and Michael are feeling like it’s a name for Transformer and a bunch of other things (promise none of them are wang related, that’s still to come) they also have lots of questions about who is it that decides the names of storms, cyclones, typhoons and diseases and their variants. Both Em and Michael are due to visit Sydney so they're on alert and low key worried that another lockdown is coming for the people of NSW. Then it’s on to the D, and in this case it’s owner, Saturday Night Live comedian and serial famous lady dater, Pete Davidson, who is currently front page gossip fodder for dating Kim Kardashian. Kanye is leaving it up to God to fix his broken marriage, Em has been deep diving the conspiracy theories around the pairing, and Michael wasn’t even really interested, but after doing his own teensy deep dive, he’s now all up in it’s grill too. He’s not up for Em’s conspiracy theories though. After the detour to wangville we need to talk about a rather distressing DM Em received from someone about Em sharing her ADHD diagnosis with her followers. There’s a full explain from Em on why she is so vocal about what she’s experiencing and how she shares her story to help other people. It's a sweaty chat but well worth the listen. Finally, inspired by the news of the passing of Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, Michael reveals which of Stephen’s songs he hears, on loop, in his head, whenever he is writing for TV. That inspires a HEAP of Barbra Streisand singing from Michael which is easily Em’s favourite part of an Emsolation episode EVER. So grab your headphones, or pump up your smart speaker and never mention to Em what the synopsis is behind the movie ‘Sophie’s Choice’, that will make sense once you’ve listened we promise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who’s nude? What’s nude? Where’s this nude coming from and why are we yelling it in ALL CAPS? All of these questions will be answered in the introduction to this week's episode as our fearless leader admits, she’s not as fearless as you might think. You see Em does have a fear and it involves her nudity in certain situations, and it would seem that certain situation actually arose this week. When it did, ONE of the ways Em responded to that fear coming true was to yell NUUUUDDDE! That ‘ONE’ is in caps because it’s not the ONLY thing Em did, you’ll hear the FULL story once you start listening, then Michael returns to cover off a week that is actually chokers with pop culture and political treats for them to dissect and discuss. To start with we gotta go through all the Adele news from her chat with Oprah, where she chatted everything, from her controversial weight loss and relationship breakups, to her son and her ability to lift hefty weights in the gym. Obviously we gotta talk about the rose garden and teahouse surrounds, and what we wish Oprah hadn’t actually asked. Then we need to talk about how the Aussie interview with Adele never made it to air, because the Channel 7 reporter sent to interview her in London, Matt Doran, didn’t even listen to Adele’s new album ‘30’ and actually admitted he hadn’t heard it to Adele while doing the interview. Did someone say “no interview footage (that your company has paid one million dollars to obtain exclusive rights to) for you” yes, yes they did, and that person was Adele. Em and Michael reacted just like most of the world did, by being shocked and horrified by this monumental stuff up. They are going to give you some behind the scenes goss on the pressure you feel when you’re given that kind of interview opportunity with a big name celeb too. Speaking of big name celebrity types, we’ve also gotta check in on the latest Britney news, from her giving thanks to the fans who helped secure her freedom by promoting their #FreeBritney movement. There’s also Britney’s attack on Christina Aguilera’s silence around her conservatorship to work through, where she also gave props and thanks to Lady Gaga. Em and Michael are worried that Britney may have got things wrong when it comes to Xtina and they have the receipts to prove that she actually has been very open about her support of Britney. Finally we need to talk about Jacqui Lambie going after Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party, over their attempt to get a bill across in parliament to end state-based vaccine mandates. Jacqui really went to town on her and her One Nation party, and whilst Em and Michael aren’t in support of everything Jacqui stands for, they were well and truly impressed with her speech on Monday. So shove a headphone into your currently naked ear holes and get lost in all the pop culture and political this and that we’ve got for you in this week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

K, that’s a confronting episode title huh. Obviously we will need to address that at some stage, but FIRST, let's talk about our special Christmas celebration. In the introduction Em will explain why she’s decided to take the show online for this very special one off, where you’ll get to watch Emsolation LIVE, plus get a bunch of bonus excitement like Em singing a few songs, plus the ability to ask Em and Michael questions, and so much more. So make sure you’ve got your ticket sorted so you don’t miss out, especially because not everything done on the night will be featured in the podcast after it’s been broadcast, so watching the show live is the only way to get the FULL experience. Once that’s been explained we’ll welcome in Michael so we can talk about going outside and doing things. Yes, the podcast that came to life in a pandemic, has finally been interacting with the outside world. We can hardly believe it ourselves, but it’s totes FACTS! Em and Michael have both actually been outside, fully interacting with living, breathing, human beings. The fact that those other humans were breathing AND doing so maskless on so many occasions, was very confronting for both Em and Michael, but maybe that fear is pretty standard. Michael's outdoor activities involved flights interstate, movie screenings and dinner with his partner Adrian and Adrian’s mum, plus visits to an underground club with shoddy ventilation. Em’s outdoor jaunts included panic buying an outfit before attending a Melbourne Fashion Week event, being extra around a bunch of famous peeps and having to meet the paparazzi on the red carpet. The full rundown of Em and Michael being out in the wild amongst humanity is completely detailed within. Sadly the title of this episode is also a reflection of how Em’s night out on the town wrapped up. Yep she’s got gastro, or maybe it’s food poisoning, the jury is still out, but whatever it is, it has successfully ruined Em’s ability to sleep or eat, as well as making a mess of a variety of outfits and also increasing her fear of ever farting again, all pretty standard results really. Of course Em’s telling of her troubles is enough to usher Michael into revealing his tricky bowel moment which managed to send a pair of jeans into permanent retirement to a bin somewhere. After that great leveller, we do an abrupt and totally unrelated pivot to Taylor Swift, so we can talk about the re-release of her Red album. There’s the full background on why Taylor is re-recording and releasing her old albums and an explain on why Jake Gyllenhaal had an awful week because of it. Finally there’s a very special event Em has been invited to and she’s gonna need your help with pointing and clicking on a link to help maybe make a fantasy come to life, you’ll understand once you get there. So stop wading through this slightly entertaining word salad and get amongst the podcast listening lovelies and if you get a chance, maybe say a prayer for a secure fart window to come into Em’s life soon too, bless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This time around we’ve got much movie action to talk through. The Emsolation safe word has been used on the streets, Em attended a movie premiere, ruined her photo op on the red carpet, and bumped into Shaynna Blaze from ‘The Block’. She also has the opening of Melbourne Fashion Week to attend next week, all by her lonesome, so expect more awkward red carpet moments to follow. There’s also a trigger warning for anyone who might have experienced a miscarriage, or the loss of a child, as Em talks about the anniversary of losing her son Ray in her introduction. Once Michael arrives, we start by giving him some more props for the extra AACTA Award nominations his show ‘The Newsreader’ secured during the week. We also need to celebrate the fact that his glorious cameo as an 80’s DJ, with fully functioning mullet, that featured in the TV series, was photographed and has now made its debut within the pages of Australia’s best selling magazine for gay men, DNA. More about why he’s in there, what cum gutters are, and why he isn’t wearing see through wet white mesh, like the hefty hung escort that features on the cover, within the podcast. Once we’ve waded through all that testosterone, we’ll get across the news that they’ve started announcing the casting for a movie version of the Broadway musical ‘Wicked’. It’s the one and only musical Em has ever seen on actual Broadway, so she is all up in its grill (expect lots of Em singing hooks from almost all of the soundtrack within this section). Anyway, while Em is totally down for the first two announcements of Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, and Ariana Grande as Glinda the Good Witch, the suggestion that the arch nemesis for lovers of musical movies, James Corden, will be cast in it, has thrown Em into a spiral of DO. NOT. WANTS. Not surprisingly it has also caused an uproar from over 73,000 peeps, who also love a movie musical, but can’t stand it when James Corden forces himself into it, to click through and type their names with gusto, into the change.org petition that demands he have nothing to do with it. After we’ve poured more petrol onto that raging bin fire, we’ll give Adam Driver a teensy serve as well. Truth be told, Em is a huge stan for Adam, she’s loved him from his days on ‘Girls’, adored him in the Star Wars reboot, and even got hot around the collar when he turned into a rugged half horse, half bare chested mansicle for a Burberry fragrance campaign. However, she is not about to excuse him for not putting enough farshun realness into his red carpet choices for the world premiere in London of his new film ‘The House of Gucci’. Especially when his co-stars, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek and the one and only Lady Gaga, all served the kind of red carpet drama we live for, Adam however turned up in a two piece suit from Burberry that was meh to the extreme. There’s also the premier of the new Bond film ‘No Time To Die’ for Em to reflect on before we to talk about the sex infused fanfiction that someone DM’d the Emsolation podcast about featuring Dan Andrews and Brett Sutton. Both Em and Michael will read some saucy passages, there’s even some ‘The Newsreader’ fanfiction as well. Finally we need an update on where Michael is when it comes to his red carpet look for the AACTA Awards in December, plus there’s also a special announcement we’ve been holding off on delivering. So make sure you listen to the very end, as if you wouldn’t anyway, so you get all the facts, HUZZAH! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you ready to nestle into the comforting folds of our love circle? We figured as much, which is why we named this episode after the new version of circles that we pretty much didn’t know existed. Thank the Goddess of gossip and all things campery for the gift of that phrase, a phrase that we’d never heard until Gladys breathed life into it during her ICAC hearings. More on that later, first up though we’ve got updates on our podcast audience numbers. Em did a shoutout on her personal page for peeps who haven’t discovered the joys of podcasting Emsolation yet, to take the plunge and give it a try (I know right, who even are those people and am I insulting them as they read this description? Probs). Anyway, Em’s call out worked, so we’re welcoming a heap of new listeners to the podcast this week, huzzah to you if this is all brand new, and also, welcome to our love circle, you officially rock (phew, I think we can all agree I fixed it after that casual insult from before huh). Once Michael arrives we get down to the business of congratulating him for getting TEN nominations for his show ‘The Newsreader’ at the AACTA Awards to be held in December. AACTA stands for the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and it just happens to be Australia’s biggest film and TV awards, so to say we’re all a little excited is an understatement. Sadly, our celebrations were marred by the fact that Michael somehow got it in his head that he could SMS Em about her thoughts on him just wearing his wedding tux to the red carpet event and night of nights at Sydney’s Opera House. Understandably this threw Em into an utter fashion emergency tailspin, how very dare he try and rip this moment of award season glamour and red carpet realness from Em’s creative claws. So expect him to get a full dressing down, then a full dressing up, as Em decides to pick and choose the right ensemble for Michael, and then open up said wardrobe selection to faithful Emsolation listeners like yourself for feedback and final approval. After that’s done we step into the ICAC hearings around Gladys Berejiklian’s relationship with Daryl Macguire. There’s the private phone calls and texts to work through, but much of the frothing revolves around Em and Michael’s love for former Supreme Court Judge, Ruth McColl. Ruth is the assistant commissioner for the ICAC hearings and she is not about to endure Gladys failure to give them simple answers, she’s been bringing the sass about it too. We also need to wade through the shit show that is Scott Morrison at the UN International Climate Summit in Glasgow. So expect a rundown on the highlights, or lowlights if we’re being honest, plus some ominous predictions from the Unicorn of Death. We did LOTS of research, well Em did, and we promise we make it as digestible and entertaining as we can. There’s also a mini celebration of Michael’s recent birthday, which unsurprisingly turns into a chat about which decade Madonna delivered some of her best work in, because of course it does. Finally, we have secrets to reveal for next week's show and if you’ve got Emsolation merch, there’s a special challenge within for those that meet other Emsolation merch wearers out in the wild. So have at it with your listening holes lovelies and enjoy every little second of what's within. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices