Life Uncut

Hey Lifers! Welcome back to Ask Uncut, where we answer your deepest, darkest and most burning questions!
Someone on Instagram got so fed up with a car hanging over their driveway that they skipped the polite note and spray painted a bright pink line down the back of it to mark exactly where the driveway ends. Laura has her own driveway war going on at home, so we want to know: how many notes before you take matters into your own hands? And what’s the most creative (and legal!) way to teach a repeat offender a lesson? Apple pie on the windscreen has been suggested. Send us your best ideas.
Vibes of the week:
Britt – Collagen Co’s Cookies & Cream collagen protein
Laura – Silly Stories for Kids podcast, narrated by Samuel Ramsden.
Then it’s into your questions!
Q1: MY FRIEND’S HUSBAND RECYCLES OUR LEFTOVERS
We have friends who are very good friends, the husband loves to cook and is great at it. My question is about what he does with the food when the meal is over. If we have soup, for instance, and some of us don’t finish it, he’ll pour what’s left in our bowls back into the pot for them to eat the next day. If he makes chicken wings, he uses all of our chewed bones to make stock. If he makes a roast and some of it is left on the guests’ plates, he puts it in the fridge for them to eat tomorrow, it really puts me off eating there. Am I always eating someone else’s dregs? Did he have a dinner party a couple of nights earlier and these are the same leftover chicken wings? Am I weird or is this weird?
Q2: MY EXPENSIVE FACIAL WAS MOSTLY ME LYING THERE ALONE
I recently treated myself to an intraoral facial. This involves a lovely stranger putting her thumbs inside your mouth and massaging your face muscles from both sides. Yes, I paid someone to finger my mouth, and no, I didn’t enjoy it. During this two-hour facial, there were several periods where the technician was doing absolutely nothing to me. I’m talking at least 15 minutes in total of zero touching. I genuinely think she thought I’d fallen asleep and decided to have a little paid holiday, because every time I moved she’d suddenly start doing something again. Considering this facial cost me a small fortune, I was expecting a bit more bang for my buck (pun absolutely intended). Is this normal facial etiquette? Am I being a tight a*s, or should I contact the clinic and ask if this is standard practice?
Q3: AITA FOR TAKING WORK CALLS AT THE GYM?
I own three businesses, and I often take calls while I’m at the gym. I always have my headphones on and I answer calls in the corner while I’m on the treadmill, or I step out into common areas. It’s never been an issue until today, when the gym manager came up to me and said my voice was disrupting the peace of the gym. She said they could hear me from the office, that they’d had several complaints every time I’m in, and that I need to get off the phone. She said she also owns three businesses and doesn’t take calls, and that maybe I should learn to switch off like the other members. Looking around, no one seemed bothered by me at all. I asked her where the sign was that says no phone calls, and she said it wasn’t needed because my voice was ridiculously loud and this was an exception. Am I the a**hole?
Q4: CAN YOU BE HAPPILY MARRIED BUT LIVE SEPARATELY?
Do you think you can be happily married but live separately? We’re a blended family of seven: three of his kids full time and two of mine part time. I love them all to death. Great marriage, wonderful man, but I hate living in our home. We have different ideas of how our home should run, and while he usually agrees with me when I bring up things that don’t feel fair or that I’m overwhelmed, he doesn’t often action anything. I feel unheard, unhappy and like a maid in my own home. I often wonder if we’d be happier living in separate houses, running our own homes our own way, but still being happily married. Could this work?
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 — Intro: The pink spray paint driveway revenge
5:18 — Vibes of the week: Cookies & Cream collagen & Silly Stories for Kids
8:12 — Q1: My friend’s husband recycles our leftovers
14:25 — Q2: My expensive facial was mostly me lying there alone
22:55 — Q3: AITA for taking work calls at the gym?
31:15 — Q4: Can you be happily married but live separately?
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
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey Lifers! Welcome to Offcuts, your little weekend snack! Britt is still in New York, so Producer Soph is back in the hot seat with Laura.
First, the discussion group post that has us speechless: a Lifer asking if anyone else gets toilet paper stuck to them after they wipe. Radical honesty is working! Then, the Auckland Marathon has done it again. After leaving women’s names off the 2026 merch, they printed men’s names on the women’s jerseys in 2025. How many mistakes before someone has to go?
We also get nostalgic about David Jones and its possible store closures, and unpack a study suggesting parents do have a favourite child (and it’s probably the youngest daughter). Tell us who the favourite was in your family!
Then, the new way people are cheating: shared notes in the Notes app, disguised as a grocery list. Laura shares how she found out her ex had been cheating (it was in the spam folder).
Finally, Airbnb is banning checkout chores from November 20. As a host, Laura has thoughts, and we ask where the responsibility falls.
Listen to our radical honesty chat 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 Laura Byrne & Sophie Nathan
Produced by Lachy Pugsley
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! If you’ve listened to a true crime podcast in this country, chances are you’ve had many hours of this man’s voice in your ears. Today we’re joined by Hedley Thomas, the investigative journalist behind The Teacher’s Pet, Shandee’s Story, Bronwyn and the biggest podcast in Australia right now, The Poisoned Wife.
Content note: This episode discusses murder, death, suicide and assault. Please take care while listening.
With almost 170 million downloads, eight Walkleys and two Gold Walkleys, Hedley’s work doesn’t just tell stories, it changes outcomes. The Teacher’s Pet helped put Chris Dawson behind bars for the murder of his wife Lynette, 40 years after she disappeared.
But Hedley has a story of his own. He opens up about his grandmother Gladys, who vanished from Sydney’s northern beaches in 1956, and how it quietly drove him to Lyn’s case. He shares why he waited until after his dad passed to make The Teacher’s Pet, how he “winged it” with a handheld recorder and still had the country hooked, and the moment he found out Dawson’s lawyers were using his grandmother’s story against him.
We also get into the battered, padlocked suitcase that landed on his desk and became The Poisoned Wife, why he believes police are missing a trick by resenting podcasters instead of working with them, and the terrifying night in 2002 when shots were fired into his bedroom while his family slept.
It’s a fascinating, emotional and genuinely important conversation about justice, persistence and the women who deserve to be remembered.
If you loved this one, make sure you go back and listen to our 2022 chat with Lynette’s niece, Renee Simms: Apple I Spotify
Catch Hedley’s new series, Hedley Thomas Investigates, coming to Paramount+ in 2027.
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 — Welcome Hedley Thomas
2:34 — The grandmother who vanished from the northern beaches in 1956
9:57 — Winging it: making The Teacher’s Pet with a handheld recorder
22:05 — The padlocked suitcase that started The Poisoned Wife
30:38 — Why police resent true crime podcasts (and why they shouldn’t)
38:03 — The night bullets were fired into his bedroom
44:34 — Rose McQueen’s death and the opportunity police missed
55:28 — Justice or peace for families: what really drives Hedley

If anything in this episode has brought up difficult feelings, please reach out to Lifeline on 13 11 14 or 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

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 your Wednesday ep! Britt is in New York doing some very exciting Life Uncut business (more on that soon 👀). Laura couldn’t make the trip, so we’re sending her over as a six-foot cardboard cutout. Britt, if you’re listening, we want cutout Laura on the subway, in the taxis and at every nice dinner. Lifers, please apply peer pressure in Britt’s comments.
So in the meantime, Producer Soph is in the hot seat and we’re talking Halloween, marathons and whether celebs are too radically honest. ( Jennifer Lawrence has told Call Her Daddy that her butthole never recovered after two kids). Is this exactly what we need from celebrities?
Next, a vulnerable one. Sophie opens up about the loneliness of moving abroad. Three years after moving to Australia, she went home to New Zealand and realised she felt like a visitor in both places. We get into the “stuck between two homes” feeling, how many hours it actually takes to make a close friend, and what it’s like raising a family without your village nearby. We want to hear from you, Lifers: if you’ve moved away, how long did it take before your new place felt like home?
Finally, a Substack piece got us asking: can you really be friends with someone if you disagree with their job? Is cutting someone off over their 9 to 5 fair, or is it a privilege not everyone has?
From AI and defence tech to private equity and fast fashion, how do you even define an “evil” job? We also talk about why your friend’s power in the company matters, whether a receptionist and a CEO deserve the same judgement, and how our videographer Ness, who is vegan, stays close friends with a butcher. Then there’s the “Severance” approach of people who switch their morals off for 40 hours a week. And are we all just picking and choosing our moral high ground?
Have you ever cut off a friend because of what they do for a living? We want to know!
Plus Sucks & Sweets, including a sausage dog who waits at the door and some more car park rage from Laura.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 — Britt’s in New York & Laura’s six-foot cardboard cutout
2:55 — Sophie’s trip home, the Halloween lemon saga & why Halloween is the best holiday
13:25 — Why you should go watch a marathon (and never run one)
17:05 — Jennifer Lawrence’s butthole confession & radical celebrity honesty
21:00 — The loneliness of moving abroad: feeling like a visitor everywhere
33:00 — Can you be friends with someone whose job you disagree with?
Don’t forget, our Patreon episode drops tomorrow! Laura and Britt revisit the very first Life Uncut episode they ever recorded, seven years on.

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 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.