Today I’m joined by Sebastian Lloyd, a writer from South London, to ask the question: is Englishness inherently weird?

We discuss how Britain’s colonial hangover has shaped the ‘plucky’ national character, whether Dunkirk is the Roman Empire for blokes, and how TikTok is complicating neurodiversity discourse. Along the way, we stop to take shots at Seb’s old workplace, Noel Fielding, the entirety of Soho, Francis Bourgeois, and Brexit.

We also dig into real-life London eccentrics, such as Hackney’s mole man and a Nunhead Elvis impersonator, characters who appear to answer a generational yearning for Authentic Community™ in a city at the mercy of American sweet shops, noise complaints, and slop bowl salad bars.

You can now listen to this episode, and others, on Spotify and Apple!

Come with us now on a journey through time and space…

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Show Notes:

* Pinterest Board

* The English Eccentrics by Edith Sitwell

* Seb’s Substack post on Steve Bennett

* Henry Paget / Madfabulous (2026)

* The Mole Man of Hackney / Karen Russo

* Paddy Power World Cup advert

* Character #9: The Free Spirit

* Rethinking Eccentricity by Miranda Gill

* Soho eccentrics: Philip Sallon & Thierry Alexandre

* Jonathan Nunn on ‘Sohoification’

* Eccentric Soho spots: All Is Joy, Bradley’s Spanish Bar & Bar Italia

* The Mighty Boosh (2003–2007)

* Withnail & I (1987)

* Wallace & Gromit (1989–Present)

* Gromit’s upcoming autobiography

* Richard E. Grant’s Instagram

* Saltburn (2023)

* SpaceX goes public

* Scrapheap Challenge (1998–2010)

* Poetry and the Turning World: Work by the LRB

* Francis Bourgeois

* Mission to Space with Francis Bourgeois (2026)

* Noel Fielding on Talk Art

* British eccentricity is dying out by the Telegraph

* The King of SE15 (2021)

* New York Nico

* Character #2: The Branded Couple

* There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack by Paul Gilroy (1991)

* Year of the Rat by Harry Shukman (2025)

* Vittles

* Caffs not Cafes and Wooden City by Isaac Rangaswami

You may know Emma as the host of STARGIRL, a podcast about girls who stand out, and she’s also a personal trainer and health goddess at large. In this episode, we discuss the undeniable allure of the Free Spirit, charting her journey from whimsical romcom girlfriend to self-authored internet forest nymph.

In the age of the Oura ring and corporate burnout, the Free Spirit seems to offer us an alternative mode of living. Ripe with sensuality, sex appeal and an array of halter tops, she lives a life of nourishment and goodness, rising with the sun, bathing in waterfalls, and relying on her intuition over Google Maps. She also releases us from our technological hysteria, leading us down a desire path that is unencumbered by fads, political ideologies, and, well, footwear.

At the end of the episode, there's an editor's note from me, interrogating my own feelings about the Free Spirit, and the sense of suspicion I can't seem to shake...

Show Notes:

* Almost Famous (2000)

* 50 First Dates (2004)

* Along Came Polly (2004)

* Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008)

* 500 Days of Summer (2009)

* The Blithe Spirit by TV Tropes

* Manic Pixie Dream Girl by TV Tropes

* ‘What time was I born’ meme

* Girls (2012–2016)

* Hippies by Dear Americana

* Faye Wong’s pixie crop in Chungking Express (1994)

* Tao Lin’s Substack

* Joel Golby on Eat Pray Love (2006)

* Health Gossip

* Emma’s interview with Lily Sperry, founder of Health Gossip

* Sigh Swoon

* Hitomi Mochizuki

* Emma’s STARGIRL episode on Hitomi

* Sotce

* Kamryn Renae

* Kamryn Renae on Getting Glam to Hike the Pacific Crest Trail by Interview

* he needs me by The Femcels

* Post-Femcel Femininity by Virginia Karnstein

* I’m A Fan (2022) by Sheena Patel

* Fandom with Sheena Patel by Literary Friction

* Pillion (2025)

* Sayaka Murata: The Cosmic Novelist by The Gentlewoman

* Convenience Store Woman (2016) by Sayaka Murata

* Vanishing World (2025) by Sayaka Murata

* Sayaka Murata Inhabits A Planet of Her Own by Wired

* ‘Marriage feels like a hostage situation, and motherhood a curse’ – Sayaka profiled in The Guardian

* The rise of mixed-orientation marriage by Impact

* What’s going on with straight women? by Dee Salmin

* To Rest Our Minds and Bodies (2025) by Harriet Armstrong

* Mimetic theory of desire by René Girard

* Doomers in Love by Mana Afsari

* Femcel by Aesthetics Fandom Wiki

* r/psychologyofsex “Femcels”

* The Rise of Femcels by The Hook Up

* The woman who founded the ‘incel’ movement by BBC

* Character #3: The Hetero-optimist

* My thoughts on the ‘having a boyfriend is embarrassing’ discourse

* She’s Not Celibate – She’s Boysober by The New York Times

* 2025 Was the Year Single Women Chose Themselves by Vogue

* r/FemaleDatingStrategy

* Everyone is Beautiful and No One is Horny by RS Benedict

* The Sex Recession by Andrea Mizrahi

* Rise of the SHEconomy by Morgan Stanley

* Married moms twice as likely to be be ‘very happy’ than single childless women by YouGov

* Materialists (2025)

* Sophie as a tragic character by @marmaryeesa2026

* i want to be a girl in love again by Ismene Ormonde

* TV Tropes: The Loser archetype

* The Loser Canon by Crooked Marquee

* Losercore by Nymphet Alumni

* The Mainstreaming of Loserdom by Tell the Bees

* Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk at fashion week

* Superbad (2007)

* An Oral History of Superbad by Vanity Fair

* The Inbetweeners (2008–2010)

* Booksmart (2019)

* Peep Show (2003–2015)

* Peep Show Still Proves That Self-loathing is Pretty Universal by The New York Times

* Succession Owes its Genius to Peep Show by i

* Four Naan, Jeremy?

*Ghost World (2001)

*Discussing Ottessa Moshfegh on STARGIRL

*Types of Social Networks: Samplers on TikTok