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This week Alex and John go deep on the nicotine pouch revolution that started in Sweden, jumped to America and has now completely taken over British train stations, McLaren merchandise and apparently Tucker Carlson's entire personality. They get into what is actually in these little white pillows (spoiler, not tobacco), why a Swedish company sold to Philip Morris for sixteen billion dollars, why teenagers on TikTok have turned pouching into a personality and why Tucker Carlson had to be told by his own sponsor to stop making claims about what Zyn does for a man's stamina.

Also covered, why Australia just banned the entire category, why France did too, whether wet bagging is cool or deeply embarrassing and whether either host would actually put one in their gums for the sake of content.

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The 2026 EIU Global Liveability Index has dropped, and Alex and John have a combined 60+ years living in this year's top 10 — which makes them uniquely qualified to ask: is "liveable" actually the same thing as good?

This week: why the famous rankings are secretly a corporate tool for calculating executive danger pay, what the criteria hilariously refuse to measure (fun, weather, goth scenes, the price of cigarettes), and why the world's "best" cities, New York, Paris, Berlin, aren't anywhere near the list.

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Bonnie Tyler has died, and with her goes something bigger than one Welsh voice with a rasp.

Total Eclipse of the Heart is seven minutes of zero-irony emotional maximalism, the kind of song everyone on Earth knew without ever choosing to, and nobody makes anything like it anymore.

So this week Alex and John tear up the episode schedule to ask the big question: what actually killed the power ballad?

Along the way: Jim Steinman, the leather-gloved rock opera maximalist who wrote it for a Nosferatu vampire musical (really), the gloriously unhinged music video, the uncredited male vocalist you never knew was on the track, the 1995 Nikki French eurodance cover that fooled a generation, why hair metal bands were contractually obligated to get sentimental, and how irony, algorithms and the death of the school disco slow dance quietly murdered the most sincere genre pop music ever produced.

Turn around, bright eyes. This one's for Bonnie.

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One in eight Americans is on a GLP-1, and the ripples are turning up in the strangest places. Victoria's Secret is selling fewer big bras. Secondhand sites are drowning in suddenly-too-large wardrobes. The checkout impulse aisle — a $6 billion monument to your eroded willpower — is dying.

In part two of our GLP-1 deep dive, Alex and John follow the money through the collapsing snack economy: why cinemas and theatre bars are in trouble, how Nestlé is pivoting to three-bite meals, what happens to cruise ships when "all you can eat" stops being a selling point, the uncomfortable questions around kids and prisoners on the jab — and why the humble Gila monster is the unlikely lizard behind it all.

Missed part one? Go back and start there.

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30 million Americans are quietly getting thinner, and it's not through discipline or willpower. It's a weekly injection derived from the saliva of a Gila monster lizard. Welcome to the Ozempic revolution.

In part one of a two-part series, Alex and John dig into the GLP-1 drug phenomenon that's reshaping bodies, brains, and culture at a speed no diet trend ever has. From the Danish pharmaceutical company that accidentally broke its own stock exchange, to the celebrities suspiciously crediting "lifestyle changes" for dramatic weight loss, to the uncomfortable question of what these drugs mean for the body positivity movement, this is way bigger than weight loss.

They also revisit the original cutting-edge weight loss technology: Light and Easy frozen meals, a bag of South Australian marijuana, and absolutely no self-control.

Topics covered: Ozempic, Wegovy, semaglutide, GLP-1 drugs, weight loss drugs 2024, body positivity, Novo Nordisk, celebrity weight loss, Lizzo, Mindy Kaling, Megan Trainor, Wegovy ads, food culture, diet culture history

Don't Praise The Machine is a weekly comedy podcast about the ways culture is shifting, hosted by two old friends from opposite sides of the world.

New episodes every week. Subscribe so you don't miss part two.

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This week Alex and John trace the full arc — from Ötzi the Iceman's 5,300-year-old tattoos to the Gen Z vs millennial style split, the mainstreaming of ink in professional life, and the industry that's now growing faster than tattooing itself: laser removal.

Also discussed: how you rebel against your parents when your mum is already covered in tattoos, why the tattoo removal industry is worth $1.86 billion a year, and whether John will ever get one.

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