Women spend HOW MUCH on period products? Mooncups, AI slop, and joining a choir

There’s way too much pressure on reaching a definitive state of happiness, and it’s just not realistic, so Fearne’s dropping into your feed every week for some chat about what’s making her feel great, and what’s making her feel completely crap. This is the cosy corner where there’s no judgement allowed! All of us can explore what’s been on our minds, what’s been getting us down, inspiring us, and making us laugh. Want to join the chat? Send us a voicenote, DM, or comment on Instagram @happyplaceofficial! In this chat, Fearne covers: -Why she’s decided to present some TV again -How to get back into something you haven’t done in ages -The importance of seeking out good news when the world gets too heavy -What singing – karaoke or in a choir, whatever you like – does for your nervous system -The difference between the hands of town men and countryside men and why this is relevant when you get a flat tyre -AI slop and how to trust what you see online -How much women will spend on period products in their lifetime Child on the line is a three-part documentary podcast series celebrating the Volunteer Counsellors of Childline, and the brave children & young people who contact the helpline service. Listen here: https://www.childonthelinepodcast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hi, I'm Natalie Dormer and I'm proud to be an ambassador for Childline. This year, Childline turns 40. To market, I've made Child on the Line, a three-part documentary podcast. We hear why children needed a helpline in 1986, how it was built against the odds and the challenges children face today, from abuse and mental health to social media and AI. Search Child on the Line and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  Hi, everyone, it's Katie Couric. And on my podcast, Next Question, we love stories about how women are taking control of their lives. They are increasingly leading financial decisions in their households, yet many say they don't feel fully prepared for the long-term financial choices ahead. Real confidence comes from knowing your financial future is protected, whatever happens. Pacific Life has helped generations protect what matters today and prepare for tomorrow with life insurance and lifetime income solutions. It's a promise Pacific Life has kept for nearly 160 years, so its customers can keep theirs.

• 1:12Speaker 01

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• 2:06Fearne Cotton?

  Like, okay, I'm gonna be honest about things. I tried one of those moon cup things. I have decided to get back into doing a bit of telly. I wanna be thick in my quiet era. Towny men normally have like quite clean hands and they're like well moisturised. Countryside men have big, ruddy hands. So many men with big hands walked towards me and said, "I can fix that straight away." Can start to be really distrusting of everything and everyone and that's not a good place for any of us to be at. Absolute arseholes, that's what they are. Hey, how are you? It's Fern here. Welcome to Happy Place, where today, once again, we're gonna talk about what is making me and team Happy Place feel great and feel not so good.

• 2:51Fearne Cotton?

  Let's kick off with things that are making us feel happy. I'll start with me and I'll try to make this not so self-indulgent because I think all of us will have either experienced something like this or it'll be the twinkling of an idea somewhere in our heads. So, what's making me really happy this week is the fact that I have decided to get back into doing a bit of telly. And that is something that scared the absolute shite out of me for a very long time. It didn't feel safe, which might sound a bit dramatic, but it just didn't. I think all of us, you know, have a bit of an awareness of the things that make us feel like safe and grounded and calm and things that do not.

• 3:33Fearne Cotton?

  And that for my nervous system was not an idea I could consider at all. But more recently, I've started to wonder if I should dare to give it a go. And I'd sort of thought about maybe I should start going to meet TV people and float ideas around. And then, this wonderful opportunity has arisen for me to co-host with the brilliant Stephen Mangan, Landscape Artist of the Year for Sky Arts. And that did feel safe. Not only is it a show that I absolutely love, but I adore art, I adore painting. I like being around paint and people painting and to be inspired.

• 4:14Fearne Cotton?

  By it. So I know on a fundamental level, I'm gonna get so much enjoyment from it. Of course, I'm gonna do my best because I know there'll be people out there that are like, I like it how it is. Why do you have to change things? I respect that. I'm gonna give it my absolute all. But it feels safe. And I guess my point that I wanna make to all of you is we can all get back in the saddle. When we want, whether it's, you know, we've not been in a job for a long time altogether, or we've not driven a car. Or we've not ridden a bike around London, ridden a bike, rode a bike, ridden a bike, brain's not working, ridden, ride.

• 4:55Fearne Cotton?

  I've not ridden a bike around London, or I've not been out and about. I've just been sort of like a hermit. Or whatever it is that we can all get back on the saddle at some point and give things a try. And I feel like I'm in the headspace where I can do it. It feels right. So I'm gonna give it a bloody good go. Fingers crossed you'll all enjoy it. I know I will, even if nobody else does. And I'm really grateful to all the Sky Arts team and everybody who works on the show. A production company for, for thinking of me and for giving it a try. Because I know that, you know, when things work well, you don't need to necessarily mess with them.

• 5:35Fearne Cotton?

  So I'm, I'm so grateful and I cannot, I can't wait to see brilliant people painting gorgeous landscapes in amazing parts of the UK. It feels like a total privilege. So I'm really chuffed. But if you're wondering if you can get back on the saddle again, I would say you can. What's making team Happy Place happy? Jenna, who does all of the PR for Happy Place, so all of the press, getting it out in magazines and online. She says she's really happy to see more positive platforms crop up on Instagram that celebrate good news and people being good humans. I absolutely agree. I think as important as it is to have a grasp on what's going around,

• 6:19Fearne Cotton?

  what's going on in the world and the horrors that are happening and all of it, the injustice, it's been part of human history forever. And we need to have a vague understanding of what's going on. But it can make you feel bleak. If you're already in a bad mood and then you put the news on and it's just bad news story after bad news story, and awful person after awful person doing terrible things, you can start to be really distrusting of everything and everyone. And that's not a good place for any of us to be at. So I think seeing counters to that online is so positive. And there's so many brilliant people running great Instagram accounts, starting up amazing communities online that, you know, help people and make people feel

• 7:02Fearne Cotton?

  good. Hopefully, that's what we're doing at Happy Place for you as well. I jolly well hope so. I also saw here something I want to read out. It's from Archie. Archie on Team Happy Place says, karaoke, I have a karaoke party on Saturday, so I've been getting lots of practice in preparation. Archie, same here. So my daughter, Honey, her favourite thing to do with her mate Doris is to watch YouTube videos of dance routines and then they practise them. She knows that they're a bit fast for me, so she's not asked me to partake in that. But she did say to me last night, would you do some karaoke with me? So we just went on YouTube and then found like loads of karaoke songs where the words come up. And we didn't have a microphone, but we sang into our TV

• 7:42Fearne Cotton?

  remote controls. And we loved it. I mean, I got a bit too into Benson Boom, if I'm honest with you. I was sort of like pulling out, I didn't do the flip, but I was pulling out some moves and getting stuck into it. And then I said to her, can I do a song you don't know? And I chose Vance Joy Riptide, which went down badly. And I know that because she sat there sort of grimacing at me, not knowing the song and me singing it quite out of tune. But the joy of singing. The joy of singing is the best, which leads me to one more. Can I have one more like? On Britain's Got Talent the other day, I loved the farmer choir. Did any of you see it?

• 8:23Fearne Cotton?

  I cried my eyes out to see a group of brilliant farmers and we all know that farmers have had for a very long time, a rough ride and continue to. And to see the amazing connection this group of farmers who didn't know each other before had, and how beautifully they sang, I was in floods of tears. And that is not only the power of singing, but it's singing out loud in a group. I feel like my choir era is just around the corner. I haven't found a choir yet. I probably haven't got time at the moment either with work and being a single parent, but in the future, maybe when my kids are at uni, I want to be thick in my choir era. There's something

• 9:07Fearne Cotton?

  about it that is so good for the soul. Like when I'm painting, the best way I can describe how painting makes me feel is, yes, it makes me happy and all those things, but it makes me feel well. It makes me feel well in every way, physically, mentally, emotionally, nervous system wise, I feel well. And I think being part of a choir must be exactly the same. Are you in a choir? I want to know about it. Tell us on Instagram. Shall we move on to the dislikes? I think we should. My big dislike from this week, you might not be expecting this, is

• 9:48Fearne Cotton?

  potholes. Potholes. Now, I live in London and I've lived in London for the entirety of my life. So I'm used to riding, driving on relatively flat surfaces. So when I go to the countryside, I'm just driving around without any awareness of what the surface is doing. And I had to go and do some filming the other day in the Cotswolds for something I can probably tell you about a little bit later down the line. It was a really fun day of secret filming with someone that I adore. And on the way to the Cotswolds, I was two minutes from this person's house. And I was driving slowly, I was on a country lane, so I'm going like, I don't know, 15 miles per hour. I went down a massive bloody pothole.

• 10:31Fearne Cotton?

  My tyre didn't just burst and flatten, it ripped. So I then drove at about five miles an hour, actually probably less, two, to get to this person's house. I was like, what am I gonna do? I'm also, because I'm a townie, I'm useless with anything like that. Luckily, there were lots of men at this location I was filming at that were like countrymen. Now, there's a big distinction between countryside men and townie men. Townie men, on the whole, normally have like quite clean hands and they're like well moisturised. Countryside men have big, ruddy hands that do stuff. So many men with big hands walked towards me and said, I can fix that straight away.

• 11:14Fearne Cotton?

  And I could have fainted, I was so swoony and happy. So a lovely man went into the local town, managed to find me a tyre, thank goodness, because I had to get back for the school run at 4pm. And they jacked up my car, is that how, is that the language we're using? And popped the old tyre on and away I drove. So thanks to countryside men and big hands, but it's a big fat no in the bin for potholes. Absolute assholes, that's what they are. Let's have a look at the Happy Place Teams list of dislikes for this week. Anushka, who is our producer on the podcast at Happy Place Studios, says people having to disclaimer their creative work, saying it's real and not AI.

• 11:59Fearne Cotton?

  It's so sad that the assumption now is that great work is too good to be true. I feel that one in my bones. Penelope also says AI slop, which I get, it's so infuriating. I am all here for AI if it's used responsibly and to better our lives. But when it starts to infiltrate like beautiful, delicate, creative industries, or just like the online world and what we're seeing, it is so sad, especially if it's. Artwork, someone's made some beautiful artwork and you have to say, I painted this, I made this, rather than it being some sort of fakery. And equally with like, I get lured

• 12:43Fearne Cotton?

  into, someone's done an amazing stunt, they've jumped from one building to another, or they've slid down this ridiculous vertical hill. And I'm all in awe and wonder of this incredible thing, only to find out it's absolute bollocks at the end. Or there's some like mad tropical fish that's got like pink fins. And I'm like, adorable, they found a new fish. No, they haven't. Someone's made it on AI. I hate it. One of my friends this morning, whilst I was doing my radio show, sent me a picture. They were working in an edit suite round the corner and they said, look who's popped in. And it was them stood next to Brad Pitt. And I was like, oh my God. I said to my producer, Katie at Radio Two, should we just run around there? It's literally round the corner. We could

• 13:22Fearne Cotton?

  quickly just go and get a glimpse of Brad Pitt. It was fucking AI. It was so realistic. I absolutely believed it. It's, it's gone mad. And I hate the fact that we now second guess and assume that everything is bollocks and AI. When actually there are great people making great things, doing great things online, that they now have to profess as being real. It's really sad. Also, I saw that Amelia has put here, Amelia who does our Happy Place social media, learning that women will spend, this is actually sickening, over 20,000 pounds on period products in their lifetime.

• 14:02Fearne Cotton?

  There has to be something massively wrong with the system we're living in, that we have to spend over 20 grand in our lifetime on something that we don't even want to have to prevent happening. Like, it's the whole thing. Having periods is not fun. Yes, there's a beautiful, miraculous cycle to being a woman. But oh my God, it's a pain in the arse. And to then have to spend money on tampons and sanitary towels, period pants, whatever. It's so awful. And we're taxed on them. That's the worst bit. What do they call it? Pink tax, I think, isn't it? All of our products are more expensive. Women's razors are more expensive than men's razors, et cetera. It's pink tax. It is crazy. I mean, no shit, because all of these systems are run by men.

• 14:47Fearne Cotton?

  But the fact that we have to spend that much money. And then, you know, people will try, I've heard this before, when, you know, there's some brilliant period charities out there that are helping women in poverty with sanitary products. And there's been backlash before, like, just give them all a period cup, like a moon cup. And they don't have to keep buying them. And it's like, sorry, I think we'll choose, the woman in poverty will choose what sanitary product suits her, not just having to deal with the only thing available, because it's gonna be, you get to keep it for however many years. Like, okay, I'm gonna be honest about things. I tried one of those moon cup things. And one of my best mates swears by it. She said it's changed her life.

• 15:29Fearne Cotton?

  She would never use tampons again. We obviously know that there's some really good reasons to use it environmentally. I tried, and it scared the hell out of me, right? I put this thing in, which already feels sizable, to say the least, this big dangly thing hanging off the end of it. I inserted this cup, and do you know what it did? And I'm sure if you've tried it, you experienced this too. It went I was like, fuck, it's like in my lungs. Like, where has this thing gone? I was absolutely terrified. It just sort of suctioned upwards. So then I was like, immediately, I've got to get this out. This does not feel like the right thing for me to do. I won't even go into those details. If you've been there, you've been there. If you know, you know.

• 16:14Fearne Cotton?

  It's not for me. I might try again in the future. I'm not going to discriminate the moon cup. I will try again. It's just, I've got a lot on my plate at the minute, so it's not for me at the moment. But anyway, circling back to the point that we spend over 20 grand in our lifetime on period products is wrong, full stop. In brackets, something needs to be done about it. Full stop again. Um, if you would like to share your likes or dislikes or experiences of moon cups, then all comments are welcome. Do head to our Instagram, at Happy Place Official, and tell us what's going on in your world. You can even leave us a voice note if you DM us, and then we'll include it in one of these episodes. So get involved. I love you.

• 17:23Speaker 05

  I've got big news. I switched to Verizon and got the new iPhone 18 Pro. Shh. I can keep my old phone. And I also get the latest iPhone every year. Shh. Anything else? Verizon let me choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on them. Everybody, listen up. Shh. Switch to Verizon and get the new iPhone 18 Pro now. No trade in needed. And the latest iPhone every year with Simplicity Plan. Plus, choose Apple Watch Series 12 or iPad on us. Simplicity Plan with Simplicity Pro required. Plan and device payment purchase are separate agreements with separate terms. Service plan for Watch or iPad required. Additional terms apply for all offers.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  Hi, everyone. It's Katie Couric. And on my podcast, Next Question, we love stories about how women are taking control of their lives. They are increasingly leading financial decisions in their households. Yet, many say they don't feel fully prepared for the long-term financial choices ahead. Real confidence comes from knowing your financial future is protected, whatever happens. Pacific Life has helped generations protect what matters today and prepare for tomorrow with life insurance and lifetime income solutions. It's a promise Pacific Life has kept for nearly 160 years, so its customers can keep theirs.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  Ask a financial professional about how Pacific Life can help you create a more confident financial future. Pacific Life Insurance Company, Omaha, Nebraska. And in New York, Pacific Life and Annuity, Phoenix, Arizona.

• 18:52Speaker 01

  It's time.

• 18:54Speaker 00

  It's the most wonderful time of the year. Halloween!

• 19:00Speaker 00

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• 19:03Speaker 06

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• 19:06Speaker 00

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• 19:15Speaker 00

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• 19:20Speaker 00

  Listen to our Halloween specials. Search for The Girl's Bathroom.