Ladies, We Need To Talk

You're horny. You're hooking up. It's hot and heavy. Then, a hand makes its way to your throat… wait WTF? Yup. Choking during sex has hit the mainstream.Choking was once the kinda thing you'd only come across in the world of BDSM, but now thanks to our easy access to porn it's literally everywhere and young women are in its grip.A recent study discovered almost 60 per cent of female college students have been choked during sex, with a quarter having been choked by the time they're 17.Yumi Stynes finds out why some women love to be choked during sex and talks to others who aren't so enamoured with it.Some names have been changed to protect identities.Life Line: 13 11 141800 Respect: 1800 737 732Featured in this episode: Dr Debby Herbenick - Professor at Indiana University’s School of Public Health, sexuality researcher, educator and author of Yes, Your Kid: What Parents Need to Know About Today's Teens and SexAleks Trkulja – Sex therapist at The Pleasure Centre 

Are you guilty of compulsively stalking your ex on socials whilst ugly crying and eating ice cream out of the carton? Join the club baby. The soul-shattering, unbridled agony of a devastating break-up, is something we tend to avoid really letting ourselves feel. The most we might get from our mates is "get back on the apps babe, there are plenty more fish in the sea".Even though it’s a universal experience, heartbreak sits in the domain of teenage girls writing in their diaries rather than being taken seriously as a mental and physical ailment. Yumi Stynes talks to heartbroken women about how they’re stitching their hearts back into their chests after being tortuously ripped out. Get in touch with your stories of heartbreak and how you made it through: ladies@abc.net.au Featured in this episode:  Jessie Stephens, podcaster and author of Heartsick.Alice Haddon, counselling psychologist and founder of The Heartbreak Hotel

Had your heart pulverised?  Been choked during sex? Is your partner a narcissist? Ladies is back and we’re going there. 

Even though we all crack a turd whistle once in a while, it doesn't mean we're not ashamed of the noises and smells that erupt from our bums, especially if it happens in public. And according to research, women hold that shame more deeply and are judged more harshly for their eruptions than men. Yumi Stynes sniffs out how we can disperse the cloud of shame around women and farting.  Featured in this episode:  Professor Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle .Dr Kirsten Bell, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Roehampton  Additional production: Kelly Ung & Yimeng Hu  

Search #cleaneating on social media, and you'll come across over 50 million posts. Vegan, paleo, raw, protein shakes, juice cleanses, gluten-free, dairy-free, chia seeds… all of these things, social media and diet culture will tell us, are the types of foods we should be putting into our bodies.   These diets offer the promise of perfect health and the perfect body…But for some they tip over into unhealthy obsession.  Yumi Stynes discovers what happens when food choices stop being about "yuk" and "yum" and become a battle between good and evil. When clean eating tips over the wafer-thin line into Orthorexia Nervosa.   Featured in this episode: Dr Gemma Sharp, Clinical Psychologist and Head of Body Image research at Monash University 

Lots of women are super self-conscious about the sticky stuff in our undies. The way it looks and the way it smells. So much so that up to a third of us wear a panty liner each day.  But how much do you actually know about discharge? What should it smell like? What should it look like? And should we just stop dissing our discharge? 

The prospect of dying is an abstract thing, something we try hard not to think about at all costs.But what if the one dying…is you? Join Yumi Stynes as she meets women who are facing their own death head-on and learns how to hard those hard conversations about the end of your life.Featured in this episode:Dr Kerrie Noonan, Clinical Psychologist and founder of the Death Literacy Institute.

Cradle snatcher, sugar-daddy, toy-boy, cougar… all of those terms are loaded with baggage and undermine the relationships they describe. Beyond the stereotypes, what's it like to be in a relationship with a big age gap?Yumi Stynes meets women who are defying the research and dating way out of their age range… and loving it, even if their friends and family aren't so enamoured.Featured in this episode:Dr Grace Lordan, Associate Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Burnout: It's a word so frequently used that it's almost become a catchphrase. And let's face it, who isn't feeling exhausted? But when does that fatigue and overwhelm tip into burnout?

Rooting around is as inescapable as laundry and taxes. While humans all around the world make promises to be with each other through sickness and health, to be loyal to the exclusion of all others, it doesn't always work out that way.Join Yumi Stynes as she discovers what it's like to have your partner do the dirty and how to decide whether to stay or go after being screwed over.Featured in this episode: Christina Spaccavento, Sex and relationships counsellor.