Trash Tuesday: The Unhinged 90s Episode w/ Jenna & Jules

Podcast: Trash Tuesday
Hosts: Esther Povitsky & Khalyla Kuhn
Guests: Jenna and Jules
Date: August 26, 2025

Episode Overview

This lighthearted, chaotic episode of Trash Tuesday pays homage to all things '90s, blending deep dives into friendship dynamics, wellness, iconic movies, and nostalgic pop culture moments with the hosts’ signature mix of vulnerability and sharp humor. Joined by friends Jenna and Jules, Esther and Khalyla roast each other, unpack the complexities of self-pity and empathy, and reflect on growing up in different households, all while trading memories of 90s icons and doing a themed trivia game. The convo jumps from silly (wet hair as a hot girl trend!) to serious (autoimmune struggles and relationship real talk), wrapped in plenty of laughs and the familiar, sluggie camaraderie.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. 90s Nostalgia & Themed Outfits

• The crew kicks off "90s Day" in themed looks: flannels, windbreakers, and Esther channeling Janine Garofalo vibes.
• [01:50] Esther: “Welcome to Trash Tuesday 90. It's 90s day.”
• They joke about laziness—the theme fits since they wear these looks all the time.

2. Friendship, Pity, and the Attention Economy

• Esther makes a tongue-in-cheek plea to always be the “most pitied” member of the group.
• [04:16] Esther: “I need to know that I will always be the one in this friend group that has the most pity from everyone.”
• The group reflects on what it means to comfort friends, draw boundaries, and crave genuine empathy versus performative pity.
• Kalila hates being pitied, saying it “incites, like, a rage inside me.”
  [06:24] Kalila: “When someone pities me, like, it incites, like, a rage inside me.”
• They dissect whether some relationships run on people feeling useful when you’re down, versus real support.

3. Touch, Acts of Service & ‘Rubbies’

• Esther confesses she asks friends for massages (called “rubbies”), despite not usually liking physical touch.
• Jenna exposes Esther’s backhanded requests for rubs and attention:
  [09:27] Jenna: “She just doesn't call it a massage because that's, you know that you do that.”
• Kalila laments she never gets these offers and jokes she’s “imprisoned” Jules' sister for chores.
• They reveal tradeoffs of friendship: food and cozy hangs for rubs—“all I really want in life is footsie, tootsies.”
  [11:35] Kalila: “All I really want in life is footsie, tootsies.”

4. Autoimmune Struggles & Women’s Health

• Discussion centers on how almost every woman they know is dealing with autoimmune symptoms.
• Khalyla and Esther point out how emotional burden and stress might be factors:
  [12:12] Kalila: “We take the burden of society and the burden of our partners and the patriarchy...and it turns into cancers and all these sickness.”
• Esther’s own family’s health is referenced—her sister has Hashimoto’s.
• The conversation also veers into “almond moms” (parents obsessed with controlling their daughter's weight), contrasting their upbringings.

5. 90s Movies Deconstructed: Titanic & Beyond

• Esther reevaluates “Titanic” as problematic for millennial romance standards, roasting Jack as a “fuckboy” and calling Rose’s storyline a mental breakdown.
• [19:32] Esther: “I'm telling you, the only good thing that that man did was let her float on the door frame by herself and him die in the ocean.”
• They link this to why millennial women have “a dating crisis” now.
• The group traces other movie tropes—choosing broke guys with “passion” over stable providers, and laughs about Hollywood’s problematic romantic ideals.

6. Relationship Expectations: Security, Growth & Gender Dynamics

• Khalyla insists her baseline for a partner is knowing they’d “protect and provide no matter what”—even in a post-apocalyptic scenario.
• Jenna references a therapist’s advice for men to always pay for meals as the “bare minimum,” given the imbalance of emotional and physical costs in relationships:
  [24:15] Jenna: “Men will always, always, always benefit more from a relationship with a woman...the way you benefit is astronomic.”
• The group reflects on emotional labor, the reality of marriage “glow ups” (for men) and “glow downs” (for women), and rising rates of women-initiated divorces.
  [26:29] Kalila: “Something really lopsided, like, 90% of the divorces filed that year were from women.”

7. Normalizing Low-Energy, Off Seasons in Life & Relationships

• Esther and Khalyla share about their recent periods of exhaustion and feeling “emptied,” validating that sometimes it’s normal for partners to go through low-energy seasons.
• [31:21] Esther: “I, like, want to almost like, normalize just for myself. Like, sometimes I can't be my fullest self. And like, that's okay.”
• The importance of communication, support, and having partners who “see your best self”—even when you’re not there.

8. 90s Pop Culture Game Show

• They hold a '90s trivia game with visual clues: Monica Lewinsky, Giga Pets, Aaron Carter, Princess Diana, Pearl Harbor's Josh Hartnett, and Tamagotchis, exposing generational gaps.
• Jules (Gen Z) confuses Monica Lewinsky with Marilyn Monroe, struggles to identify River Phoenix, and only knows Victoria Beckham from Spice Girls.
  [48:49] Jules: “Monica Lewinsky.” [50:30] Jules: “Who is he? Aaron Carter.”

9. Wet Hair as a "Hot Girl" Aesthetic & Professionalism

• Kalila shares the Filipino “hot girl” trope of coming to school or work with wet hair, which, in America, is seen as unprofessional or “lazy.”
• They discuss how beauty standards are cultural and wet hair is “lazy-hot.”
  [39:04] Esther: “To me, it's like the hair equivalent of like wearing your boyfriend's oversized T shirt...do I accidentally look like sexy?”

10. Vibrator Mishaps & Orgasming So Hard You Go Deaf

• Jenna recounts a story of going temporarily deaf after a quick orgasm using a low-battery vibrator—a phenomenon confirmed by other women online.
• [55:33] Jenna: "Has this happened to any of you?"
  Kalila agrees, highlighting how “coming harder solo” is normal and sometimes leaves men unable to match that intensity.
• A tangent about vibrator preferences, hand versus device, and the need to “keep the threshold low” so that sex with men is still enjoyable.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Seeking Pity:
  [04:16] Esther: “I need to know that I will always be the one in this friend group that has the most pity from everyone.”
• On Empathy vs. Resentment:
  [06:24] Kalila: “When someone pities me, like, it incites, like, a rage inside me.”
• Relationship Security Baseline:
  [22:09] Kalila: “I need to know that if everything ends for me tomorrow...he’s going to do by hook or crook, make sure that there is shelter over my head, that we are safe.”
• On Female Health & Societal Burdens:
  [12:12] Kalila: “We take the burden of society...and it turns into cancers and all these sickness.”
• Titanic’s Lasting Impact:
  [19:32] Esther: “The only good thing that man did was let her float on the door frame by herself and him die in the ocean.”
• On Quick Orgasms & Going Deaf:
  [55:33] Jenna: “I rarely use my vibrator...I orgasm and I go deaf for about a minute and a half.”
• On ‘Lazy Hot’ Wet Hair:
  [39:04] Esther: “If I did wash my hair often, I would love to go out with wet hair. I think that sounds so hot to me...It's the hair equivalent of wearing your boyfriend's oversized T-shirt.”

Important Segments & Timestamps

• 90s Theme & Outfits: [01:50–03:15]
• Friendship Pity Dynamics: [04:00–08:30]
• Rubbing, Touch, ‘Acts of Service’ in Friendships: [09:00–12:00]
• Autoimmune Health, ‘Almond Moms’, Women’s Wellness: [12:15–16:30]
• Deconstructing Titanic & Millennial Dating: [16:27–21:15]
• Relationship Expectations/Divorce/Labor: [22:07–27:26]
• Normalizing Exhaustion, Communication in Love: [31:21–34:41]
• 90s Pop Culture Image Game: [47:14–53:28]
• Wet Hair, Beauty Standards: [37:43–41:00]
• Sex, Orgasms & Vibrator Mishaps: [53:41–60:02]

Final Thoughts

This episode is classic Trash Tuesday: part hangout, part comedy therapy, full of 90s nostalgia and radical honesty. If you’re a sluggie who craves intimate, hilariously relatable convos about friendship, femininity, sex, health, pop culture, and the sheer weirdness of being alive (and growing up in or after the 90s), this one’s required listening.

Hosts social:

• Trash Tuesday Instagram
• Khalyla Kuhn
• Esther Povitsky