Life Uncut

Hey Lifers! Welcome to Ask Uncut, where we answer your deep, dark and burning questions.
Before the questions, we get into a theory: can someone be so attractive that they stop being attractive? Brittany’s been deep in the Fourth Wing books (or as her husband Ben calls it, the Dragon Book), and the casting for the screen version has just dropped. We talk about intimidating hotness, the dad bod revival and why a perfect eight pack can feel like looking at a nice bunch of flowers.
Then it’s on to our vibes:
Laura’s Vibe: Edits (an Instagram Editing App)
Britt’s Vibe: MCoBeauty Lip Stain & Sculpt (Natural Nude)
Then we get into your questions:
I MIGHT HAVE TO FIRE MY FRIENDS
I’m stuck in a hard place! I run a small business that is quite successful and I have a couple of girls working with me that I adore and have become very good friends with. As we all know the cost of running a business these days is overwhelming, not just the money side of things but the stress, lack of work/ life balance and feeling like you need to be everything to everyone. Sometimes, because we have all become close I get taken advantage of and lines get blurred between boss and friend at work. I’ve recently started thinking about moving my business to my home as it’s a service based industry. It would give me a much better work life balance and I would be much better off financially without the crazy overhead costs, but it would mean I would need to let the girls go. I’m worried I would be absolutely betraying the girls who work with me, but I know they are amazing and could easily find work in this field elsewhere. Am I being selfish or am I overthinking it too much? Please send advice!
DAUGHTER AND BF HEARD US HAVING SEX
Hi ladies, I am writing for some advice for myself following my own embarrassing dilemma. Hubby and I have been together over 20 years, our kids are now older and aren’t at home as much, so we have more frequent alone time. I have always had a huge hang up on being intimate in ear shot of the kids, particularly if things become vocal. I feel it’s something they don’t need to hear. Last night, our daughter (almost 19) was out for a Birthday dinner followed by drinks and unbeknownst to us returned home from said dinner and drinks with her boyfriend (of a year) while hubby and I were watching a movie. Usually she would poke her head in the lounge room and say hi. This time, she didn’t. Hubby and I went to bed after the movie and let’s just say things got heated. I’m talking sloppy ‘hawk tua spit on that thang’ very vocal orgasms…going at it like hammer and tongs with the door wide open. It was like we were in our 20’s again (high five). My daughter and her boyfriend 100% heard us, it was confirmed with an awkward chat and laugh with her about it this morning. My daughter said her boyfriend was like ‘yes’ and she was ‘almost in tears’. I am absolutely mortified and now have a play by play of everything they would’ve heard on a constant loop in my mind. It’s beyond any embarrassment I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I know we’ve done well for this to be the first time this has happened in almost 19 years and she and her boyfriend are adults but I’m more horrified the boyfriend heard us. How can I get over this and move past it? Hubby thinks it’s hilarious which isn’t helping.
LET ME EAT CAKE!!!
A light hearted one! (With made up names) The other day my friend Cindy and I went to celebrate our other friend (Ellen’s) promotion at her house. Cindy brought flowers and I brought a cake. For reference it was a whole mud cake from a cake shop. When I greeted Ellen I handed her the cake and said “to celebrate!” And man was I looking forward to a piece of that cake. I had chosen a flavour I loved fully expecting to get a piece. Now… an hour goes by, no mention of cutting and sharing the cake.“I can’t wait to get into that cake” I say, hoping to prompt some action … nothing. About another hour later “let’s have some cake before we all have to scoot off!” I say again (subtle I know). Again, nothing. She doesn’t even make any acknowledgement when I bring up the cake. Eventually it’s time for me to leave. And leave I do, hungry and disappointed. Now, is it wrong for me to have expected her to offer to share the cake with us? Obviously I gifted it to her so it’s her cake, but I just thought it was common courtesy to crack out the cake with everyone who was there (it was just me and Cindy) Especially considering it was afternoon tea time. It left me wondering is she saving the cake to repurpose / re gift.
CAN I ASK MY PARENTS FOR THE WEDDING MONEY FOR SOMETHING ELSE?
Hey guys! I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I cannot decide what’s right… please help! So backstory, I’ve been working on my own start-up business on the side and I’m finally at a place now that I think I could take that full time and really go for it. To do that, I’d have to quit my current job and obviously that’s a pretty stressful financial situation if it goes tits up. Now, here’s the predicament. My parents have always said they’ll pay for my wedding. All of it, the bells and whistles, anything I want and they’re so excited to be able to do that for me. I’ve been with my partner for over 7 years (we’ve been engaged for a year) we’ve talked and neither of us is really all that keen for a big extravagant wedding. SO, knowing that my parents have set aside all this money… I’m wondering if I could ask that they invest that in my start up instead? It feels weird because it does just feel like I’m now asking for money, but on the other hand they were going to give it to me for a million flowers and decorations for a one day event? Should I ask them? Or just leave it?
Keep your questions coming! Slide into the Life Uncut DMs at @lifeuncutpodcast on Instagram
Join us on Patreon for exclusive content and bonus episodes
You can watch us on Youtube
Join us on tiktok
Or join the Facebook Discussion Group
Hosted by Britt Hockley & Laura Byrne
Produced by Sophie Nathan
Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford & Lachy Pugsley
Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! Xx
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey Lifers! Welcome to a very spooky Offcuts, your little Halloween weekend snack! 🎃
The plan was to come in costume. The plan did not go well. Laura’s had an emergency with Matt’s costume box, Britt is riding something inflatable, Delilah came as Chucky, and if you’re not watching on YouTube, now is the time.
Then we get into your ghost stories, and you sent in a lot! A commuter is saved from falling by hands on her back in an empty train carriage. A baby monitor photo that Britt and Laura can’t agree on (we need you to weigh in on socials). Britt also shares a deeply personal ghost story she has never told on the podcast. It had us both in tears.
Then we’re joined by psychic medium Kerrie Erwin, who has more than 40 years of experience talking to the dead and clearing haunted houses. Kerrie tells us how she was trained, why she burps whenever a spirit is nearby, and what it’s like being “Samantha from Bewitched” married to a very skeptical lawyer. She also does a remote clearing of Britt’s apartment, yes really! And finally, the moment we’ve been waiting for: skeptic Laura gets a reading. Has she been converted? You’ll have to listen to find out.
Happy Halloween, Lifers! 👻
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Welcome to our Halloween Offcuts (and our costume fails)
3:50 Your ghost stories: hands on the train, the baby monitor ghost and a man in the laundry
11:45 The ghost story Britt’s never told
18:16
25:22 Kerrie clears Britt’s house, remotely
28:12 Skeptic Laura gets a reading
Meet Kerrie Erwin:
Instagram: @MediumKerrieErwin
Website: pureview.com.au

Keep your questions coming! Slide into the Life Uncut DMs at @lifeuncutpodcast on Instagram
Join us on Patreon for exclusive content and bonus episodes
You can watch us on Youtube
Join us on tiktok
Or join the Facebook Discussion Group
Hosted by Britt Hockley & Laura Byrne
Produced by Sophie Nathan
Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford & Lachy Pugsley
Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! Xx
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Content note: This episode discusses terminal illness, death and voluntary assisted dying.
Hey Lifers. Today’s episode is one we will never forget, and we’re so grateful you’re here for it.
Our guest is 26-year-old Annaliese “Annie” Holland from Adelaide. You may know her from social media or the news, where she has become one of the most honest and powerful voices on voluntary assisted dying (VAD) and patient advocacy in Australia. Annie lives with autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy (AAG), a rare autoimmune disease that attacks the nervous system responsible for everything our bodies do without us thinking: digestion, heart rate, blood pressure, bladder. She first got sick at 13. It took five years to get a diagnosis, and by then she was already in multi-organ failure.
Annie takes us through the moment she looked in the mirror and didn’t recognise the girl looking back, why she chose quality of life over quantity, and the heartbreaking conversations she has had with her family. She also tells us about her friend Lily, who had the same disease, and the extraordinary honour of holding Lily’s hand as she died through VAD. That was the moment Annie promised to keep saying Lily’s name. She explains how VAD actually works in Australia, why she hates the term “assisted suicide,” and why she decided to stop her nutrition.
Annie, you will always be Annaliese to us. Thank you for spending some of your precious time with us. Check in on your people today, hug them, and tell them you love them. 💛
If this episode has brought anything up for you, please reach out to Lifeline on 13 11 14.
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 — Welcome Annie to the studio
2:00 — A normal childhood, getting sick at 13 and the experimental treatment
5:23 — What AAG is and the five-year wait for a diagnosis
7:15 — Turning 21: the resuscitation conversation and choosing palliative care
18:35 — Lily: holding her friend’s hand through VAD
31:44 — How VAD actually works in Australia
44:02 — Why Annie made the decision to stop her nutrition
54:38 — The bucket list: a wedding dress, a helicopter ride and witnessing a birth
1:06:10 — How Annie will know when it’s time
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey Lifers!
Britt’s pregnancy hormones have officially taken over, and this week she cried about butterflies. Yes, butterflies. Laura is (mostly) sympathetic and has a deeply unsettling caterpillar fact to share.
We also have a BIG announcement. We’re doing our first ever In Conversation event in Sydney! It’s an intimate, small-crowd night with us and the team, and tickets are very limited. Life Unlocked members on Patreon get first access to reserved tickets at 10am Thursday, and general sale opens at 10am Friday. Set your alarms!
Then we’re talking Hilary Duff, girls weekend with interpretive dances and is whistling on a silent bus cute or horror-movie creepy? PLUS keep an eye on our socials this week. Britt is jetting off to New York for something very exciting for Life Uncut, and we can’t say what just yet... 👀
Then we get into the story dividing the internet. A woman asked her employer for eight weeks of paid “paw-maternity” leave for her new puppy and threatened a discrimination claim when they said no. Is a puppy really comparable to a newborn? And why do so few workplaces give any leave for pets at all?
Finally, Tom Brady and the Victoria’s Secret angels. Joan Smalls has publicly called out her friend of 15 years, Candice Swanepoel, over her rumoured relationship with Brady. That opens the big girl code question: is dating your friend’s ex ever okay? We each share our own experiences, including one where we were the one in the wrong.
Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome back & Britt’s butterfly breakdown
05:24 Big announcement: In Conversation tickets
07:38 Hilary Duff, nostalgia & her very grown-up new era
20:39 Eight weeks paid pawternity leave for a puppy?
38:55 Tom Brady & the Victoria’s Secret friendship breakup
50:43 Our own friend’s-ex confessions
Wanna Join Patreon to get early access for tickets? HERE HERE HERE
Keep your questions coming! Slide into the Life Uncut DMs at @lifeuncutpodcast on Instagram
Join us on Patreon for exclusive content and bonus episodes
You can watch us on Youtube
Join us on tiktok
Or join the Facebook Discussion Group
Hosted by Britt Hockley & Laura Byrne
Produced by Sophie Nathan
Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford & Lachy Pugsley
Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! Xx
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey Lifers! Welcome back to Ask Uncut, where we answer your deepest, darkest and most burning questions! Before we get into it, we need to talk about pickles. They’ve gone viral, apparently they’re the new coriander (you either love them or they taste like soap), and one little pickle lover has just been teased out of having them in her lunchbox. Kids are brutal.
Then Laura finally tells the story she’s been “saving for content” all weekend. Mid-conversation in the park, she sucked back a fly… which then shot straight up the back of her nose and got stuck in her sinus. Sorry in advance, it’s very visual.
Vibes & Unsubscribes of the week:
Britt – Vibe: Ballers. Five seasons of The Rock as an NFL player turned sports manager, half-hour episodes, and very Entourage vibes. Britt smashed the whole thing in two weeks and is now in mourning.
Laura – Vibe: Instadocs: AI Gone Wild on Netflix. A short, frightening deep dive into the Hugging Face hack and what the AI agents were actually saying to each other.
Then it’s into your questions!
Q1: MY BEST FRIEND GAVE ME THE GO-AHEAD TO DATE HER BROTHER, NOW SHE’S PULLING AWAY
I’ve been friends with my friend for over ten years, and I recently moved back home. We all went to the pub together: me, my sister, my friend and her brother. It was a great night and it was no secret that her brother and I were vibing. He asked me out the following week. I immediately set the boundary that his sister is so important to me and I wanted to talk to her first. I did, we had a good chat and she gave me the go-ahead. Fast forward two months and my friend has become very uncomfortable and is pulling away from both of us. She doesn’t want me at the house when she’s there and point blank refuses to hang out with us, especially just the three of us, even though we’ve never actually all hung out since we started dating. Every time we talk about it she says, “I know this is a me problem”. She’s one of my oldest and closest friends and I don’t want to lose her, but I really like this guy. Am I being a bad friend by dating her brother, or is this something she needs to get over?
Q2: I THINK I’VE BEEN DUMPED BY MY FRIEND GROUP. DO I BRING IT UP?
I’ve always struggled to make friends. Even through high school and uni I felt a little out of touch or left out of the group. Two years ago I moved to a small town for work, knew no one, and ended up making friends with some really great girls through netball. When the season finished they kept including me and we became really close. About a month ago, two of the girls started drifting and stopped replying to messages. One was still talking to me, but her replies were getting shorter and shorter. When I asked what she had planned for the weekend, she said she was going to her partner’s dad’s house so the kids could see their grandfather. Then I found out on Instagram that they’d all gone to a festival together. I have no idea if I’ve done something to upset them. Do I tell them they’ve hurt my feelings, or do I just pretend it never happened?
Q3: MY FRIEND’S BOYFRIEND STAYED BACK IN EUROPE AND SHARED A HOTEL ROOM WITH ANOTHER GIRL
My friend has been dating her boyfriend for four months. They went to Europe to visit her family and he stayed an extra week after she flew home. During that week he travelled with one of his friends, a single, straight girl, and they shared a hotel room (separate beds, apparently). My friend told him she was uncomfortable and he said it’s fine, they’re just friends, he has lots of female friends, nothing to see here. Now my friend thinks it’s all fine and that this is just the modern world. I think when you’re in a relationship, out of respect for your partner, you don’t travel alone with someone of the opposite sex, let alone share a room. Does he not respect her, or is this now the done thing?
Q4: DO I HAVE TO ASK HER TO BE MY BRIDESMAID BECAUSE I WAS HERS?
I recently got engaged and have asked my three closest girlfriends to be bridesmaids. My fiancé wants four groomsmen, so now I’m wondering whether I need a fourth. A few years ago I was a bridesmaid at one of my friends’ weddings and I feel this unspoken pressure to return the favour. We haven’t fallen out, we’ve just naturally drifted. We live in different towns, have our own friendship circles and only catch up every couple of months. I still love her, but we’re not as close as we used to be. I have a feeling she’ll be really hurt, or even angry, if I don’t ask her. Is it easier to just include her? Should I really be choosing someone to stand beside me purely out of obligation?
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 — Intro: The great pickle debate & Laura snorts a fly
7:05 — Vibes & unsubscribes
14:52 — Q1: My best friend gave me the go-ahead to date her brother, now she’s pulling away
27:14 — Q2: I think I’ve been dumped by my friend group
38:02 — Q3: He stayed back in Europe and shared a hotel room with another girl
43:44 — Q4: Do I have to ask her to be my bridesmaid because I was hers?
If we answered your question, we want the aftermath! Let us know what happens.
Keep your questions coming! Slide into the Life Uncut DMs at @lifeuncutpodcast on Instagram
Join us on Patreon for exclusive content and bonus episodes
You can watch us on Youtube
Join us on tiktok
Or join the Facebook Discussion Group
Hosted by Britt Hockley & Laura Byrne
Produced by Sophie Nathan
Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford & Lachy Pugsley
Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! Xx
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.