Guess what Stephen first did after being elected? He went to the dentist. In this episode of QTD, Stephen Bates (he/him) shares his experience of giving his first speech in parliament as an openly gay person, which he considers to be a full-circle moment. We also discuss various topics such as the aftermath of the federal budget, the Green party’s proposal to lower the voting age to 16 and 17-year-olds, the impact of Germany’s voting age reduction, ageism in parliament, the government’s lack of engagement with young people, and Stephen’s unconventional path to becoming an MP, including his past experience working in retail. Additionally, we delve into how living in America contributed to his political involvement. He ran his campaign on Grindr, changed his speech at the last minute, advocated for queer issues as an openly queer person in parliament, and why we need dental and mental health into Medicare. You can follow Stephen and me on Instagram, Stephen, myself, and the podcast on Twitter, and the podcast on TikTok.

Georgia (she/her) came back for an episode! This means that two neurodivergent queers talk, about why Australians are obsessed with sunscreen, balancing masked and unmasked socialisation, flirting as neurodivergent lesbians, our friendships with straight men since coming out, the pain of first sapphic relationships and breakups, and the homoerotic friendships that end in catastrophic emotional explosions. We discover that we both have synaesthesia and discuss the importance of queer spaces, chosen family, unlearning trauma and patriarchy, the intensity of the first time you experience an emotion, and the way our neurodivergence impacts how we communicate online. You can follow Georgia and me on Instagram, myself, and the podcast on Twitter on TikTok.

On this episode of Queers These Days, my fantastic friend Ananya (She/Her) joins me to chat about what music we’ve been listening to recently, life being a never-ending series of processing trauma, getting haircuts, queer fashion, being neurodivergent air signs, the neurotypical education system, self-worth being tied to academic validation, queer work environments, the fetishisation of bisexual women, navigating dating apps as a sapphic person, The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo, straight passing relationships, our relationship to labels, Hijars, how we came to realise our individual queerness, the property revenge and fetishisation of the daddy issues trope, the depictions of a good father vs a good mother, and what happiness means to us.  You can follow ⁠Ananya and ⁠me⁠ on Instagram, ⁠myself⁠, and ⁠the podcast⁠ on Twitter on ⁠TikTok⁠.

In this episode, Athina (she/her) explains to me the plot of aftersun because I am uncultured and have not seen it yet. We also discuss the joys of networking, the importance of representation, paparazzi, the Kardashians contribution to beauty standards, why middle school is strange, tarot, situationships, dyeing our hair, moving countries in your VERY early twenties, nodal returns, we’re not really strangers, and the advice we most recently received that was hard to hear in the moment. You can follow ⁠Athina⁠ and ⁠me⁠ on Instagram, ⁠myself⁠ and ⁠the podcast⁠ on Twitter, and the podcast on ⁠TikTok⁠.

Author and professional tarot reader Cassandra Snow (they/them) is on the podcast this fortnight to discuss living life as a double Pisces, neurodivergent planning skills, the differences between choosing to do less and being forced to, how they got their first book deal, how they learnt tarot, why queer people are drawn to spirituality, how the gender binary bleeds into tarot descriptions and definitions, their time at a conservative baptist college, doing theatre in college, how growing out of the ideologies you were raised in can cause a disconnect between parents and their children, the humanisation of our mothers, setting boundaries with family members, coming out to our parents, casually dating as a non-binary person, liv hewson making the choice to not submit themselves for an Emmy consideration, the importance of queer media covering queer issues, why historically oppressed people need to be in the writers room for television, corny holiday movies, our favourite canceled sapphic tv shows, overcompensating femininity due to gender dysphoria, why wearing clothes at the beach is silly, and the last time we earnt our own self respect.  Check out Cassandra's website here. You can follow Cassandra and ⁠me⁠ on Instagram, ⁠myself⁠ and ⁠the podcast⁠ on Twitter, and the podcast on ⁠TikTok⁠.

School Strike 4 Climate organiser Arlie (She/Her) joins me to talk about greenwashing, the fast fashion industry, politicians and the 1% who can escape the climate crisis, the cycle of toxic consumerism, passing down phones like family heirlooms, our little brothers being taller than us, how much we love socks, emotional support Doc Martins, scott morrison at COP26, activism burnout, our parents responses to our activism and why pauline hanson needs to be sued/humbled. You can follow Arlie and me on Instagram, myself and the podcast on Twitter, and the podcast on TikTok.

This episode, I'm joined by three of my incredible friends Georgia (she/her), Taylor (he/him), and Kay (any pronouns) and we talk about the differences and similarities we encountered growing up as queer people in neighbouring generations. Georgia and Taylor are millennials, whereas Kay and myself are both Gen Z. Taylor joined us from California and shared his perspective on what it was like growing up in the south of the US in general, let alone as a black queer person. Us Aussies walk Taylor through the history of immigration in Australia and the abusive relationship we have between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (we are the only commonwealth country without a treaty with its indigenous peoples), the Stolen Generation, the Australian media and Rupert Murdoch, the different Australian political parties and their American counterparts, and the same-sex marriage debacle in Australia. Taylor and Georgia reminisce on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, MySpace, dialing into the internet, and being thrown into caregiver roles at a young age and how that took up any space for them to think about their queerness. Georgia talks about the difficulty of trying to vote overseas during the previous federal election and running into Julia Gillard in London, religious trauma, becoming an orphan at 17, why she thinks that queer millennials are more online than straight millennials, growing up in Naarm and the micro-communities that exist there, the intersectionality of queer gen z, and finally, she blushes over heartstopper and talks about the relief it gave her. Taylor talks about tracing his African American identity, growing up closeted in Texas and now living authentically queer in LA, the moment he realised it was over between him and god, being a parentified child, coming out to his mum, the ways he’s seen Gen Z navigate queerness openly, finding himself represented in media growing up and how tumblr was an early step in his queer journey. Kay talks about growing up ethnically Jewish but religiously catholic, listening to Peacock by Katy Perry so much that their older sister deleted it from her customer to stop Kay from listening to it, growing up with grandparents that semi-blurred the gender binary, the impact of the religious discrimination bill on queer youth, psychology being less of a taboo subject amongst gen z, his experience with queer media, and being slurred in Sydney and Melbourne CBD. You can follow Georgia, Kay, and Taylor on Instagram. You can also follow Kids These Days on TikTok and Twitter and me, Piper, on Instagram and Twitter.

On this episode of Kids These Days, I was joined by queer business owner Madison Ryan (She/Her), and she told me about the role TikTok played in her journey to exploring her sexuality, the tropes that made sense to her when she realised she was attracted to women, how making sense of her idenity was impacted by trauma, and the homophobia of drinking cows milk. We also discussed coming out to our parents, the lesbian master doc, why the orgasm gap and sexual unsatisfaction that straight women experience regularly made it difficult to flag that we were gay, the fear of contributing to stereotypes when you're figuring shit out, and our favourite Taylor Swift albums. If you love pride, feminist and/or swiftie apparael, make sure to check out Madison's store! My favourite is the global protest shirt. You can follow Kids These Days on TikTok and Twitter and me, Piper, on Instagram and Twitter.

In this episode of kids these days, I had the personal privilege of introducing Australian Greens Senator for Queensland, Larissa Waters (fellow Sagittarius rising; She/Her), and her absolute force of a policy advisor, Jess Feehley (She/Her) to Bob Katter’s Crocodile Farm. We discuss the results of the last election and the new policies that have come of it, the issue of class in parliament, the icon Stephen Bates, the new sexual harassment laws that give workplaces the duty of keeping their employees safe, and the issues with the new budget. We also talk about gen z's role in today's political atmosphere, and Labor taking money from the fossil fuel industry while branding themselves as environmentalists. Larissa also shares her very Aquarian perceptive on how the environment makes her feel, how the status quo is being passed off as a solution in parliament, and her hopes for the new government.

The fantastic Laura Hartley (She/Her) joins me for a discussion all about internalised capitalism and internalised patriarchy, society’s love of binary thinking, what it’s like to be an activist against the systematic structures that exist today, activist burnout, the importance of queer love and queer joy, and so much more. Laura has an amazing podcast called The Public Love Project and it is absolutely worth blessing your ears with! You can follow Kids These Days on TikTok and Twitter and me, Piper, on Instagram and Twitter.