Saying CYA to Liv and Rubes ❤️‍🩹

2/3 of SYSCA and 2/3 of my heart 💘

Full disclosure I’m a lil hungover today because yesterday we had a send-off for Rubes’ and Liv’s last day in the office (Liv’s last day PERIOD and Rubes’ last day working from the office in NZ!) They’re both heading off to Blenheim (our home town) for a few weeks, and then they fly back up here for the Lorde & Harry Styles concerts🕺, and then we’re all flying over to Sydney to drop Rubes off (she’s moving there) and see Liv off (she’s going on her big OE!!) Big changes to come, and don’t you WORRY I’ve written more about how this all makes me feel below…

But first! A lil PSA from me!

I’m gonna be chatting at this hot event in Auckland on the 17th of March (it’s a long boozy brunch so it’s a YES from me), and if you wanna come hang there are still tix left!! It’s gonna be a pretty intimate event & we’ll all be eating and drinking and chatting together and I can’t wait!! Gather your besties if it seems like something you’d be into!!

• Saying goodbye to Rubes and Liv 🥺

• New episode of The Shit Show

• I’m hungover so you get horoscopes

Saying goodbye to Rubes and Liv 🥺

I’ve never really minded goodbyes - you’ll usually catch me Irishing (dipping out without saying cya) and not trying to make a fuss about it - because I can never really pre-empt or imagine someone not being there, I just have to wait and see what it’s like when they’re not. And that’s kinda the case with Rubes and Liv leaving, but this kinda feels like the end of a whole 10-year (at least) era.

Work-wise, it’s been the biggest privilege of my life getting to do this job with my best friends every day. Anyone who tells you not to work with your mates (imo) doesn’t have friends like Rubes and Liv. From meeting at cafes between lectures in 2018 to discuss what blog post we were going to write that week (and taking minutes at every meeting… for what?), to sitting in the hallway in a fancy hotel in 2022 disrupting EVERYONE while we waited to interview a celebrity we were CERTAINLY not qualified to be interviewing, the thing that’s made everything feel incredibly fun, low stakes, and possible, has been the fact that it’s always been the three of us.

Liv, you’ve done the absolute most. You’ve given us about five different “brand refreshes” (from podcast art, to logos, to newsletter design, to a new website 👀), pumped out 25 episodes of a weekly web series, recorded over 100 episodes of Culture Vulture (and spearheaded a new project right before you left) and slayed everything that was given to / thrown at you (which is a lot when you’re a team of three!!) It'll be a life’s work trying to find someone who can hear what we’re saying and somehow so perfectly create something that is EXACTLY what we were envisioning, or who can take our feedback - which is so often just “I don’t like this and I can’t really put my finger on why…”

We’re going to miss your in-house therapy sessions, constant car malfunctions, your presence in the band that we never shut up about, and just having you there for a cuppa whenever we need it, but are SO fucking excited for your travels & whatever comes next (and no doubt we’ll keep you all in the loop.)

Rubes, even though you’re not leaving SYSCA (and thank GOD) a long-distance relationship is going to be SUPER WEIRD for us. Most of you probably don’t realise JUST HOW MUCH Rubes does to keep this ship sailing. She’s charged with keeping us afloat, looking after our gorg paid supporters (on that note - are you one?), editing every single podcast, taking every meeting, scheduling me, Liv and ALL our projects (and all our other characters in the Universe), doing all the comms with clients, strategising on what’s next, paying our bills… she really is the silent hero behind it all (and I know she has a lot of stans out in the audience.) Can’t wait for more excuses to come to Sydney, but sux for me that you’re leaving 🥺

I can’t remember the last time the three of us were apart for more than three months, and we’ve CERTAINLY never lived in three separate countries before, so bear with us as we navigate a new era of SYSCA without Liv (but with Bel, Laura, Dunc, Squish, and Abby who you’ll all come to know better) and a new era of who we are without our literal sisters at our side!! Drop some love in the comments for Rubes and Liv today, we’re gonna miss you both so fucking much ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

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New episode of The Shit Show: Algospeak, Rihanna, BingGPT & Popping Balloons

This week Slam Dunc and I are on the mic to talk about his resignation, Rihanna's Super Bowl performance, the US shooting down UFOs, Algospeak, Bing using ChatGPT and much much more. It’s a goodie!!

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I’m hungover so you get horoscopes

Here!

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Paying supporters are gonna get heaps of links today to make up for the lack of headlines in this newsy (I was in my feels about Liv and Rubes ok??)