Ep. 102 Are Gen Z Aging Faster Than Millennials? & WhatsApp Disasters!

Welcome back to Meet in the Middle!. We're diving into Season 6, Episode 102 with a packed lineup of chaotic laughs and bizarre confessions.

First up in "Have You Heard?", Jake explores the raging online debate: Are Gen Zs aging faster than millennials?. We discuss how growing up fully online with constant social comparison and stress might be raising cortisol levels and breaking down collagen. Plus, we touch on beauty culture trends like preventative Botox and 18-year-olds shaving down their teeth for "Hollywood smiles," while millennials grapple with their own "age dysmorphia".

In "Confessionals," we have some absolute near-death-by-embarrassment stories.

• A train ride goes horribly wrong when a friend opens a Safari tab to a very explicit video title.

  
  

• A listener ends a three-year friendship group in four seconds by accidentally sending a harsh voice note about a friend directly to their 8-person girls' night WhatsApp chat—while sitting two feet away from her!.

  
  

• But the absolute worst? A hungover listener trying to have some "tactical" private time during a family Sunday roast, only to realize their phone was Bluetooth-casted to the 65-inch living room TV in front of 12 silent relatives.

  
  

We dive into "Rachel's Furry Box" to answer a divisive question: How early do you like to get to the airport?. The boys like to play it safe with two or three hours to spare for international flights, while Rachel shares a stressful story of having the "sweats" while barely making her flight out of Gatwick.

In "Boys Catch Yourselves On," Rachel investigates why men will replay a single compliment in their heads for years. Jake admits he still remembers a backhanded compliment about weight loss, and the group agrees that men just don't get hyped up with compliments from their friends as often as women do.

Danny takes over "What the Fact?" to explore the biological purpose of farting. Did you know the average person farts 14 to 20 times a day, and most of them happen while you're asleep?. We also learn that only 1% of a fart actually smells (hydrogen sulfide), they are highly flammable, and James is apparently in a "farts only" WhatsApp group where chatting is strictly forbidden.

Finally, we update our Spotify playlist, "The Middlers Soundtrack," with new picks. This week we add Bebe Rexha and Faithless's "New Religion," Metallica's "Enter Sandman," Boy Throb's "Can't Stop the Throb," and Aaron Rowe's "Please Don't Hate Me".

Grab a drink, have a laugh, and join the chaos!

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🎵 Intro and Outro: Living Kills - The Noise