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Simon seems to be on the verge of buying something big and Lee wades in.

Things covered: Catching up after being away and hearing each other's voices, Bob in China, high speed trains to Hong Kong, American and British voices in HK, being a foreigner vs being a tourist, not a lot of love for Keanu Reeves in our listenership, Timothy Chalamet, Tom Holland, being told when we jumped the shark, buying an apartment, an expensive computer, the non-negotiables, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, junkets, not having the vocabulary (regardless of the language), marble flooring, the process of buying an apartment in another country, UK property law, flying freehold, numbers in another language, co-dreaming, checking out bidets in a shop, bum hose pipes in Portugal, Bob's match has been met by Igor, Lil's capacity to image space, geometra (surveyor), first time buyer, the chain in the UK housing market, Lee's house buying history.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee call Finn to find out who he likes. Things really go off the rails, and then Lee gets back to his favourite subject: jettisoning friends.

Things covered: Lee jettisoning friends (again), update and feedback from newphew Finn re Keanu Reeves, trying to add someone to a FaceTime call, live update from Finn: Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal, Normal People, Ordinary People, Gladiator 2, Andrew Whats-his-chops (hot priest in Fleabag), All of Us Strangers, Cillian Murphy (Bomby-man), Murphy's face needing a wash, Lee being the universal taste-maker, Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan, the longest running podcast ever, jumping the shark (again), that Lee dumping friends is not a true story, being gay for pay, Lee listening to a 'blue' podcast (on suggestion from a friend), Tim Walz and tonic masculinity, studying micro-expressions online (during a Tim Walz speech), responding and not-responding to messages (including acknowledging birthdays), iPads being the pinnicle of technology, Lee wearing a HUD to read out a presentation (and not looking ridiculous in the glasses).

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee get silly celebrating their 200th episode, and they discuss a translation of a speech by Donald Trump.

Things covered: The arbitrary nature of 200 episodes, Lee's soporific tone, falling asleep during meetings, haribot in a mini, just how easy the marshmallow test is (for Simon), Simon's TeeVee snacks adventure (from another episode), brain messages, weeing at the pub, falling ewoks, Return of the Jedi (and ewoks), seeing Star Wars for the first time, force fields, breaking the seal at the pub, waking up people dozing off while listening to Midlifing, their disinterest in their listeners, Lil Boyce and translating things, stuffing up prepositions, Donald Trump speech in Italian, Lee being more special than Simon, making decisions about translating, being seduced by ideas, following (or not) the politics in the USA, the things we can influence, the lesser of two evils, conservatives being happier than progressives, Lee lighting and burning incense, Aesop's incense.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee work through earthquakes, what Lee sleeps in, ghost outfits and life after death.

Things they discuss: The dancing scene in Call Me By Your Name, dancing at a wedding, swimming in the early morning, Lee survives an Earthquake in Lisbon (while naked), Bob doesn't even wake up for it, Georges Perec's "Life A User's Manual", the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the Shaky Isles, 1755 Lisbon earthquake, ghost outfits, the expansive sky where Lee's parents live, Bob and Lee watching for shooting stars, Lee not believing in God, different kinds of tears, the word awe (and contrasting emotions), being as far away from TikTok as you can get, small and not mattering, the smallness of differences in conflict, we humans are all the same, engineering hatred, genetic commonalities with bananas, being made of stardust, there being nothing after death, how long the brain continues to function after death, organ harvesting, being aware, ecstatic dancing, craft beers in Lisbon, free beer, needing to be more dog as a philosophy for life, self-consciousness and dancing like nobody is watching, flow, the Task Positive Network, why human beings like to travel, projecting into a building for retirement.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee discuss Simon's experience of a root canal. Lee chimes in with buying a car and a bit about optometrists.

Things they discuss: Simon having a root canal, dealing with the unknown, teachers (for example) keeping in mind how unfamiliar an experience is and how important that is, getting the giggles while at the dentist, down-dogging to the dentist, Tonya Harding the shit out of the others, having five canals, not really knowing what a root canal is, three different approaches from people before Simon had the treatment, giving reassurance, buying a car online and having it delivered, Lee's list of five dream sofas, Simon's first job in a sports shoe store (in 1986?) and not having the necessary expertise (or training), Simon's reading glasses frames, not going to Specsavers, going to an independent Optometrist, the root canal not yet being finished, the possibility of getting a tooth prosthesis (followed by an inappropriate joke that Lee didn't edit out), Simon's incisors, Toothsavers, tooth-hurty, tooth infections, Sir Andy Murray and other Scottish lookalikes, Pamela and Fabio's wedding in Sardegna, auguri, Lil's linguistic advantages, those things called facts, male pattern building, dancing at the wedding, dancing like someone who can dance (and better than Andy Murray), antibiotics, and pre-emptive antibiotics (in case of emergency), probiotics.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee discuss how Lee's relationship with his parents is changing (or not) and Simon going through his Mother's writing.

Things they discuss: Jefrey is inbetween breakfasts, Lee's breakfast, brushing your teeth when you wake up, not talking about the science of brushing your teeth before or after breakfast, bacteria replicating at night in your mouth, water squirters, mouthguards at bedtime, sleep apnea, Lee not making breakfast because he's dead, Weekend at Bernie's, how the age of Lee's parents is manifesting itself, Jonathan Silverman, Andrew McCarthy, Brighton Beach Memoirs, the documentary Brats, Rob Lowe making sense, Molly Ringwald not appearing on the documentary, repeating stories as we age and how long between the stories (days, minutes), Lee's Dad's pool is leaking, the man dug or the man Doug, a cubic meter, ladling out water of a pool, elderly people exercising, how Lee's relationship with his parents is changing, being more anxious about them (and expressing it), dying of emptying a swimming pool out, the challenge of doing all of Netflix (Lee's Mum rising to it), South Korean dramas on Netflix, Atal Gwande's "Being Mortal" (the medicalisation of death), Simon going through his Mother's writing (by posthumous request of his Mother) and putting it off, journalling instead of diarying, "What will I tell the children?" (G.A. Ellis), talking about midlife-ing, the beauty of your lives being ahead of you and the flip side of that, thinking about life ending.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee talk about the things they have learned from their enemies.

Things they discuss: Mars the planet and who owns Mars the confectionary thing, Lee's newfound love of stickers, Pema Chodron's "Living Beautifully", the people we don't like, Bob interviewing a student who talked about their nemesis, Lee getting the discards, the wisdom of Ru Paul, feeling happy at the misfortune of another, Simon's greatest teacher, gentle hints to help you get rid of people, being an outsider, Peter Kramer helping Lee with a bullying situation years ago, the force of personality to be an actor, teachers are not to be trusted and they know fuck-all (except the brilliant ones), the value of terrible things, imagining if Lee were still an actor, the directors Lee would have liked to have worked with (David Lynch), Simon would go with Terrance Mallick, Wild at Heart (by Lynch), Nicholas Cage before he was a little bit Nicolas Cage, not Blue Velvet, Willem Dafoe losing his head, David Lynch having lunch with some actors and getting a phone call from Dennis Hopper, Lee being a fancy human being.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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Simon and Lee share a tricky conversation about the politics of representation.

Things they discuss: finding the note about the tricky subject, Lee extemporising, representation and optics, box ticking, Bayo Akomolafe and representation on slave ships, Simon's confusion about representation, the end game of the politics of representation, Guild HE report on "Understanding the lived experience of ethnic minority students in postgraduate research", the vitality of role models that we see ourselves in, visible markers of identity, female vice-chancellors and a patriarchal narrative, Lee goes all Derridean on us and getting to the point where the binary has been dismantled, gender-based violence in the UK and positioning women as chattle.

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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