What is the best video game of the 21st century?
The thought of downloading full games over dial-up was laughable, and the idea of watching someone else stream themselves playing video games would have required too much explanation and infrastructure.
Things have gotten a bit better since then.
Our 25@25 series will finally put to bed the debates you've been having at the pub and around dinner tables for years – and some that are just too much fun not to include.
But 2000 was a huge time for video games.
The PlayStation 2 hit stores with a whopping 32MB of RAM, and was the first console to feature a new-fangled DVD drive. Games like Deus Ex, Final Fantasy IX, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Sims, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 were changing people's expectations for what video games could be.
It's hard to imagine games now without Xbox, but Microsoft joined the console wars a bit later than Sony and Nintendo, with the original Xbox getting an Australian release in 2002, introducing us to games like Halo, Forza Motorsport and Gears of War.
The occasion was marked with midnight launch parties at the 'Electronics Boutique' and Grace Bros, featuring ATVs, green lighting and a specially decorated Jeep to deliver the first Xbox.
A few years later the, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era began, setting new benchmarks for online multiplayer gaming and how many slurs you could hear a 13-year-old American say during one game of Call of Duty.
The year after that new console generation kicked off, Nintendo released the Wii, which then introduced everyone to the joy of games with motion controls.
This was later followed up with the release of the Wii U, an objectively excellent console that almost no one bought.
While most people generally think of Japan and the US for video game creation and production, Australia actually punches way above its weight, with Aussie developers finding particular success in the new millennium.
Some notable Aussie-made games and gaming accessories include LA Noire (Sydney, 2011), the UDraw tablet (Melbourne 2010), Fruit Ninja (Brisbane 2010), Crossy Road (Melbourne 2014), Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Canberra 2014), Untitled Goose Game (Melbourne 2019), the AFL video games (various), Unpacking (Brisbane 2021), Hollow Knight (Adelaide 2017), Cult of the Lamb (Melbourne 2022) and heaps more.
Australian studios also work on Call of Duty and EA Mobile titles.
Remember when the Adelaide Crows and Essendon Bombers footy teams bought Overwatch and League of Legends esports teams? Or when the Australian Open launched a Fortnite tournament with a $500,000 prize pool?
Australia might not be the esports capital of the world, but we do know how to have fun with it.
Plus, who could forget when Pauline Hanson used the unacceptable prospect of foreigners beating children from the bush at multiplayer games as an argument to improve the NBN?
Drawing on that 25 years of gaming history, it's now up to you to determine the order of the 10 most impactful games and game franchises of the 21st century so far. Here is the shortlist of contenders:
Minecraft
It's hard to say what makes Minecraft so special, spawning film adaptations, Lego sets and
campaigns to use it in education.
Was it in the right place at the right time? Do the children truly yearn for the mines? Or is it simply that people love to create when given the opportunity, and Minecraft perfectly blends fun gameplay with a blank canvas.
Kayleen Walters, Head of Mojang Studios told news.com.au what makes the game special.
'At its core, Minecraft is a canvas not just for creativity, but for possibility,' she said.
'Every player brings their own spark, their own story, their own vision. Whether it's a simple shelter under the stars or a vast redstone-powered machine that defies belief, Minecraft gives players the tools and the freedom to build whatever they can imagine.'
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto first launched in 2D in 1997. However the majority of the franchise's success occurred in the last 25 years, so it still counts.
Earning the title for 'most controversial video game series in history' from the Guinness Book of World Records, GTA III was originally banned in Australia until the ability to pick up sex workers in game had been removed.
GTA is also one of the most successful franchises, perhaps partially because of all that free publicity the controversies garnered, proving that a good game is more than just the sum of its grossest parts taken out of context.
GTA V was released all the way back in 2013, but it still routinely tops Australia's weekly video game sales charts, with the game having sold more than 215 million copies worldwide. GTA VI was originally supposed to be released this year, but the planned release date has now officially been postponed to May 2026. Many gamers are hopeful that it will be released some time before Christmas 2027.
Fortnite
There have been a lot of successful free-to-play games over the years, but few have scaled the
heights of success that Fortnite has enjoyed.
When Fortnite was released back in 2017, the focus was the Save The World mode, building was an important aspect, and so was the storm.
But it wasn't until developer Epic Games took those ingredients and put them in a battle royale that the popularity of Fortnite exploded. Suddenly, kids everywhere were doing Fortnite dances on the playgrounds in numbers that had talkback radio hosts channeling the reverend from Footloose, acting as though kids copying dances they'd seen in a game was both novel and scandalous.
The game has grown even more since then, with the current popular modes including Battle
Royale, Lego Fortnite, Fortnite Festival, and Fortnite Creative, where anyone can make their own games that anyone else can then play.
More importantly, thanks to all the collaborations on skins, it's the only game where Peter from Family Guy can hunt down Darth Vader and then dance with Batman to celebrate.
But, more than all the numbers and modes and variety, it's just fun. It's the game that a generation of gamers will point to as the one that made them fall in love with video games, and it's likely that its influence will be felt for decades to come.
Call of Duty
In the last 25 years, there have been 22 Call of Duty games, with a further six free-to-play games.
While some of its popularity has died down slightly in recent years, it's hard to articulate just how much of a cultural impact Call of Duty had in its heyday unless you were there.
Matt Cox, senior vice president and general manage of Call of Duty, put it well when he told
news.com.au 'Call of Duty is more than a game—it's a signature piece of pop culture that
continues to bring us together to create lasting memories with our friends, families and global
community'.
There aren't many games that can pull off conveying the seriousness of the Second World War, meditations on the nature of modern war from the perspective of a British SAS commando, and collaborations with celebrities like Nicki Minaj. And yet, somehow Call of Duty has managed to span the gamut of emotions around war and war games.
While it certainly wasn't the first first-person shooter game series, it's likely the one most people think of when the genre is mentioned.
Wii Sports
Wii Sports is the only game on this list locked to a single, superseded console, and yet I think it's also perhaps the most universally beloved.
Bundled with the Wii console, Wii Sports was designed to show off what the Wii Remote could do, introducing people to remote-based motion controls.
For some people, it ended up being the only game they needed to play on Wii, becoming an instant hit for kids, university parties, family gatherings, drinking games, and old folks' homes. Even people who didn't like video games loved trying to get a strike in bowling, or absolutely destroy their friends at tennis.
Other sports included boxing, golf and baseball, and the game struck the right balance of being easy enough that anyone could play, while being challenging enough that it took skill to win.
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is the most successful indie game of all time, and for many people it's their comfort game.
It's cosy; all you have to do is farm, fish, mine, battle against unspeakable horrors (creatures in the mine) to please ancient spirits (Junimos), and fight against capitalism (JojaMart).
Created by one man (Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone), it's gotten steady, free updates since its release in 2016, and has never had paid DLC or ads. It's currently available as part of the Apple Arcade subscription service, as well as the Xbox Game Pass service, or it's pretty cheap on basically any console.
Pokémon
Sure, Pokémon's popularity might be borne out of the 1990s anime and trading card game craze.
But the game series also gave rise to the most iconic in-person gaming event of the last 25 years: The Pokémon Go winter of 2016.
It was one of those events you had to be a part of to truly understand why it captivated so many people.
The sense of community, and joy of getting to explore our towns and cities while playing a game we loved was somewhat magical.
Pokémon Go is still going strong, of course, but nothing compares to the huge groups of people running through the Melbourne CBD, stampeding towards the Yarra to catch a Dratina, at a time when everyone was sharing this same experience and adventuring together.
With the growing popularity of the Pokemon TCG Pocket mobile game, and the upcoming
Pokemon Legends: Z-A, Pokemon isn't going anywhere any time soon.
The Sims
The concept for The Sims came after developer Will Wright's house burnt down, and he wanted to create a virtual doll house so people could build their homes in game, and create characters to tell their own stories.
Ever since, players from all over the world have spent thousands of hours crafting the most beautiful castles and most messed up family plot lines.
The Sims is easily one of the most iconic game franchises ever. When asked why The Sims games were so popular and why people should vote for them, an unnamed member of The Sims development team told news.com.au:
'In The Sims, if you can dream it, you can Sim it. Whether reimagining real life or building from scratch, your creativity takes centre stage.
'You can recreate your favourite reality drama, whatever is happening in pop culture or a story purely from your imagination. Life transcends beyond the boundaries of reality.
'Every moment is an opportunity to redefine life on your own terms. You can build fantasy scenarios or explore everyday life, or an unexpected mix of both.'
World of Warcraft
Who among us hasn't lost a week in World of Warcraft? There had been massively multiplayer online role-playing games before World of Warcraft debuted in 2004, such as Everquest, but none quite captured people's attention or imagination like WoW did.
People have met, proposed and gotten married in game. It's the kind of game where you work
your regular job, and then get to go home to adventure in this massive world with friends you're closer to than anyone else, despite living on the other side of the world.
Darren Williams, the Associate Technical Director of World of Warcraft (who is originally from Adelaide) said the reason why Australians should Vote One WoW is because of those connections.
'So many people have formed lifelong friendships or relationships thanks to World of Warcraft, spanning distances and other communication barriers,' he explained.
'For most of this century people have been finding like-minded folks and forming deeply important and meaningful connections through the game.
'Families who met through the game are now sharing it with their kids; the game is generational and bridges many communities. World of Warcraft is an important part of so many people's lives.'
FIFA/EA Sports FC
Once known as the FIFA games, now known as EA Sports FC, this soccer series really defined what serious sports games could be.
Nearly every time I've interviewed an athlete about video games, no matter which code they played (NBA, AFL, tennis, soccer, hockey, etc), they all played EA Sports FC more than the games that actually featured them and the team they played for, that's how good this game is.
There are people out there who own consoles only so they can play each year's iteration of the game.
When asked why Australians should vote for EA Sports FC as the best game of the last 25 years, the development team told news.com.au: 'EA SPORTS FC sits at the intersection of sports and entertainment and continues to shape football culture in an unprecedented way.
Living out your ultimate football fantasy and connecting to fans all over the world is possible because of our commitment to community and our love of football and gaming.'
Honourable mentions
OK, that's all 10 up for your consideration. But, because it's impossible to distill 25 years of video games into just a top ten, here are some honourable mentions which didn't make it, but still deserve a shoutout.
Mario Kart
All of the Mario game series are classics, but there is something extra special about blue shelling your friend metres before the finish line on Rainbow Road, or heading down to Moo Moo Meadows.
The Last of Us
I don't think a week has gone by since I played The Last Of Us Part 2 that I haven't thought about it. This series has been so hugely impactful in so many ways, and it spawned the best TV adaption of a video game yet.
Forza Horizon
This is my personal favourite game series of all time because it so perfectly balances the best of how polished and realistic a driving sim can be (the amount of detail in the cars is absurd) with the best of the freedom video games gives you (I can take that realistic car and drive it off a cliff to get points).
Halo
It's Halo.
Guitar Hero/Rock Band
These games gave a whole bunch of people a love of music and rhythm, and gave some the
confidence to try picking up a real guitar. I'm one of the many people who deeply miss the days of going to a party and just having fun on the full Rock Band set up in the games room.
Tony Hawk Pro-Skater
This is the game that introduced a whole heap of kids to skateboarding and punk music, and for that we are all grateful.
Counter Strike
Counter Strike really changed the face of esports. Every single one of the thousands of people who attended the finals at the Intel Extreme Masters tournament in Melbourne this year knows how electric the energy can be at a CS:GO event.
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2 hours ago
- ABC News
How to love your body after babies
ABC Listen: podcasts, radio, news, music and more. Yumi Hey ladies, I want to let you know about a podcast I think you'll really like. It's called Australian Birth Stories and it's full of really amazing stories of pregnancy, birth, conception, IVF and life postpartum. If ever there was a podcast, aside from this one of course, that leaves you thinking, holy hell, women are incredible, then Australian Birth Stories is it. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts. And we are going to meet the host of Birth Stories later in this episode. Zali The whole idea that our body should go back to what it was before going through that enormous process is ludicrous. Turia I was in awe of what my body was capable of doing. Tegan My relationship with my body has gone from seeing it as an ornament to seeing it as an instrument. Sophie We need to just kind of get out of that shift, I think, of comparing ourselves to the kind of Instagrammable mums that bounce back. Turia I really try and focus in on all of those things that my body does as opposed to what it looks like. And I think being a mum or giving birth has really helped me to do that. Yumi If you're a woman and even semi-conscious, then you know there is a hell of a lot of scrutiny of your body. We're expected to fight gravity and the passing of time to conform to a beauty ideal that's always out of reach. No matter what kind of body you have, you've probably tried to make it smaller, perkier, and more socially acceptable. These unrelenting body standards cling to us like a Kim Kardashian skim dress no matter what stage of life we're at, even in and after pregnancy. Even when we've been the incubator of new life for nine months and had our organs pushed to the side and our skin stretched to make way for the new human. Even if we've been torn asunder getting the baby out. Even if our boobs have been the breakfast, lunch, and dinner yum cha cart for our babies, there's still a pressure to shrink back down to our pre-baby selves. But what if we said hell no, hell no to the idea that we should bounce back? What if growing a baby and giving birth was actually an opportunity to change your relationship with your body? I'm Yumi Stynes, ladies, we need to talk about loving our bodies after birth. This episode is about women finding a newfound respect for their bodies after birth. And that can't be understood without finding out how they felt about their bodies pre-babies. Turia I'm not trying to say this to be cocky, Yumi. I was conventionally like a young, athletic, pretty woman. Yumi Tariya Pitt can look back with kindness at her teenage self, but at the time, she saw her body as not being good enough. Turia In the 90s, there was just one type of body and it was white and it was thin. I'm Polynesian, so I wasn't white, but at least I was thin. Yumi Even though she was always athletic and slim, Turia was still aware of the impossible body standard that lay always out of reach. Turia I still probably was a bit, not a bit, probably quite caught up in how I looked. Yumi Yeah, and the constant search for flaws and things that you could fix, improve or criticise about yourself. Turia Yeah, yeah, which is like not something that I came up with. It's just what you saw when you watch telly. It's inescapable, right? It's in the media, it's in the news, it's in the magazines. Yumi In 2011, Turia was caught in a grass fire while running an ultramarathon. She almost died and ended up with burns to 65% of her body. She lost seven fingers and had two years in hospital, having multiple surgical procedures and recovering. Turia I didn't like looking in the mirror. I didn't like when I saw my arms, I saw my legs, because it was so different to what they used to look like. So even when I would get changed, I would shut my eyes so I wouldn't have to see myself. I had a really good psychologist in those early stages and I told her I was doing that and she said, every time you shut your eyes, when you get changed, you're going to see a change that's sending yourself a signal that you don't like what you see. Yumi What were some of the things, the tiny things that were frustrating about the day to day of being in this new body after the accident? Turia You just want one thing, you hear me? Because there's a whole fucking list. There's a whole list of things that I find frustrating about this body that I have now. Like not having all my fingers, finding it hard to open a jar, finding it hard to open a door, finding it hard to get in and out of my wetsuit. The fact that I get really, really hot or I get really, really cold, how dry my skin can feel sometimes. Yumi The extent of Turia's injuries meant her doctors were worried about her having children. But Turia's always been strong-willed and babies were the plan for she and her partner Michael. So they got pregnant, then told her doctors. Turia Because I think we have this idea as well that when someone has a disability, you know, maybe motherhood's not for them. And I think that's really unfair. I think everyone has the right to be a mother, irrespective of whether they have a disability or not. Yumi Your medical team had a lot of concerns. Do you know what they were about? Turia No, and I've never asked because I don't really give a fuck. Yumi Even though she didn't particularly care what doctors thought about her getting pregnant, it turned out Terea was affected by what people said once she fell pregnant. Turia And like my body post-burns has done some pretty cool shit. Like I've done Ironman World Championships. I've done all sorts of cool adventure races. I've done those things after being burnt. But I think maybe just the comments that people made to me while I was pregnant about, you know, how do you think your body will handle it? Or were you booking for a cesarean? Maybe those kinds of comments made me question whether or not my body was up to the challenge. Yumi Turia had a pretty textbook pregnancy and birth with her first child, and with the recommendation of her obstetrician, opted for an epidural. Turia For my second child, I thought I want to just try and see what labour pains are like. So then either tests came in to give me an epidural and I was like, no, thanks, mate. I'll give you a call in a little bit. You know, when I start, you know, I just want to feel what this feels like. Fast forward 20 minutes, I'm screaming in pain. I'm saying, get me my fucking epidural right now. And they're all saying, no, it's too late, Turia. You've got to start pushing. Turia So I had Rahiti. It was a really quick labour, but it was also a very empowering experience. I felt like it was transcendent that I'd accessed all of these generations of ancestors that I have in me, that I, you know, that I was a strong woman, that I was a capable woman, that I could do hard things. I was in awe of what my body was capable of doing. What was breastfeeding like? I got really self-conscious with that, with people looking, not because I was ashamed at breastfeeding, but because maybe I felt they were judging. Yumi Judging you, judging your body or judging the way the child was attaching? Turia Maybe all of those things. Like I suppose I'm very conscious of how I parent because I don't want people to think, oh, Turia's not doing a good enough job at being a mum. And so I was always really conscious of that. Like if my son didn't latch on straight away or if he's crying, then everyone's going to think I'm a bad mum. Oh, that's really hard. Yeah. And I think just with the added layer of my burns and my disability, I was probably more aware of that. So breastfeeding in public, you know, being a bit clumsy with popping my tit out and stuff like that. You know, less so with my second child, but definitely with my first one. Yumi Since her accident, Terea has had to learn to adjust to the things that her body can't do. But having a baby has given her a renewed appreciation for what it can. Turia I think these days that I'm not always great at it, but I really genuinely try and focus on what my body can do, right? Because we can all think of a million different things that our body is shit at or that we don't love about our body. But I remind myself, like your body has given birth to two sons. You know, you've been pregnant with them and you've breastfed both of them. Your arms carry them, your legs walk them to school. You can hold their little hands, you can brush their hair, you can read them a book, you can make them dinner. So I really try and focus in on all of those things that my body does as opposed to what it looks like. And I think being a mum or giving birth has really helped me to do that. Zali We thought that women who had just gone through the process of growing a belly, giving birth, breastfeeding, the whole thing, we thought that they would be the most dissatisfied with their bodies. But actually, they were much more likely to be appreciative of their bodies. Yumi This is Zali Yager. She's the executive director of the Embrace Collective, which is a charity focused on building better body image. In her former life as an academic, Zali was part of a research team at Victoria University, looking into how women felt about their bodies after giving birth. They looked at three different categories, women with kids zero to five years old, then six to 10 years old, and finally no children at all. And what they found was that those with the youngest kids felt the best about their bodies. Zali They had less body shame, less self-objectification. And so that's kind of, you know, thinking of your body as an object that's there to be looked at instead of a thing that does stuff for us. And when we compared the women of even children six to 10, so it's like the effect kind of wears off as your kids get older. And then also compared to women who had never had children, it just seemed to be this protective effect of like, oh my gosh, my body has actually done something. You know, it's useful and it's done something that's really meaningful. Yumi Why does that feeling wane or taper down as the children get older? Zali I think the main reason is that, you know, when we've got that tiny baby with us, they're kind of attached to us most of the time. And everyone can see that that might be the reason why your body might be different. Yumi A different study from the University of Minnesota, which looked at women in the first year postpartum, found that women started getting more dissatisfied with their bodies six to nine months after giving birth. Zali There was just that kind of expectation coming back of, you know, needing to, I want to put it, bounce back in inverted commas always, because it's just not a thing. You know, needing to go back to a body that might conform to societal standards instead of being something that's, you know, feeding, nourishing, growing babies. Yumi When you say bounce back, inverted commas, is not a thing, what do you mean? Zali I just think that the whole idea that our body should go back to what it was before going through that enormous process is ludicrous. Now it seems so obvious to me that it shouldn't be a thing, but prior to having children, no one told you anything else other than that your belly would grow and then it would go back down again. I just think we need to talk more about the fact that bodies definitely need to change over time. Sure. It's the whole idea. But certainly, you know, all of the influences on how we feel about the way we look do come from our family, our peers, and the media that we engage with throughout women's lives. And bodies do not change over time in terms of in the movies and in the media that we see with women kind of staying relatively the same size and shape over time. Yumi Yeah, yeah. Do you remember when Posh Bex had her babies and it was always so much scrutiny on how she would bounce back and how thin she would kind of come out looking as really snatched, you know, weeks after she'd had a baby? Do you think that sort of intel is really damaging for women? Zali Yeah. And then because we see that everywhere in the media, we kind of think that's normal. And I kind of think that's one of the things social media has given us is a little bit of an insight, perhaps into like a wider range of stories of what might happen during that time and how bodies might be different for quite a long time afterwards. And so I'm really loving the fact that we do get exposure to just those bellies that still look like they have a baby in them, even though they've given birth. And the women sharing that, I think that's really helpful for people who are in that time. Yumi Yeah, that totally happened to me where I'd given birth and then someone said, when's the baby due? And I was like, Jesus Christ. Here it is. While there are realistic postpartum images of women on social media, there's still a ball tearing amount of snatched back pre-baby body nonsense as well. So it's important for women to act as role models. Zali You would know this. When you try to sit down and like get out the whiteboard and teach your kids stuff and tell them like intentional messages, they don't want to hear it. But when you swear accidentally or something, they will soak that up. And so it's, you know, it's kind of the same thing in that they're picking up messages all the time around, you know, how we look at ourselves in the mirror and then the little things that we might say and how we might respond to things. But when we can role model just little things, whenever we can remember to, when we can role model like, oh, I love that my arms can cuddle you. Just those tiny little moments of just recognizing what our body does for us instead of what it looks like. Yeah. When we can role model little pieces of that. Yumi I used to tell my daughters that your body's like a car. You have to drive it till you die. Like you don't get to trade it in. And I think like a lot of people think, I hate my car. I can hate it, but you still got to drive it till you die. Like just you may as well love it, treat it good and like upkeep it well, you know. I think they quite like that analogy. Yeah. Yeah. Zali But also like the more you like your car or the more you think your car is like special and amazing, you might put like, you might spend that two cents extra on the premium fuel. Sophie Some women look like they haven't had a baby five days post, but the 95% of the rest of society don't. So we have these unrealistic expectations of how our body will be. Yumi This is Sophie Walker. As well as being the creator and host of the Australian Birth Stories podcast, Sophie's also a mum. Sophie So I've got three beautiful rambunctious boys that are six, nine and 11. And my first baby boy was 4.4 kilos. So I was really big in that pregnancy. And for a bit of context, my husband's Fijian. So he's built a bit more solidly. And I think I really enjoyed pregnancy. I'd always wanted to be pregnant and have kids. And I just loved having a big belly and being able to wear clothes that kind of clung to my belly and you could just let it all hang out. I think I'd spent so many years holding my stomach in and trying to squeeze myself into sort of spanks and things. I loved that time of just being like, oh, everybody loves you being big. Yumi What's your relationship with your body been like throughout your life before kids? Sophie Yeah, prior to having kids, I think I had a really tumultuous relationship with my body. I got bullied in sort of grade six for being overweight. You know when you finish grade six and everybody signs your T-shirt and people wrote nasty things on the back of my T-shirt that you didn't see till you got home. And I think on reflection, sort of pre-menstruating, I think my hormones went wild and I put on a lot of weight suddenly. And to the point where my mum's a psychologist and she was trying to do all the things and protect my mental health, but also helped me try and reduce some of that weight to the point where we ended up going to Weight Watchers together. Yeah, which seems wild now. And I have such a great relationship with my mum that I feel like some people will be like, what? What was she doing? And I think that she was really trying to help me. But it was really difficult and I felt kind of body shamed from a young age. So I kind of hated my body and saw exercise and things as like a way of getting weight off and a negative. Yumi Just talking about not loving your body for many years, did that change after birth? Sophie Yeah, I think my road into kind of conceiving was very straightforward. So I kind of had a trust in my body there. I think it wavered when my first birth didn't go to plan. So I was like, oh, a lot of work on like, did I do something wrong? Was I not birthing well? I think having the next two births go smoothly and being able to implement a lot of things that I learnt then there was a kind of a greater sense of trust and kind of knowing in my body's strength. Yumi The new body that Sophie's learnt to love looks quite different from her pre-pregnancy one. Sophie My stretch marks almost go up to my boobs. And it's interesting now because we're a bit of a nudist household. So the boys are always like, what are those lines? What's that about? And I'm like, that's you, you stretch that out. So yeah, we try and use, I try to be as positive as I can with the boys about all sorts of things. Yumi Sophie is modelling the kindness to her body that Zali Yager says is so important. Sophie Trying to get them to kind of love their own bodies by showing that I love mine, which I do now, but I didn't for many, many years. Yumi So when you look in the mirror and you see the tummy pouch where the babies used to live, what's your internal dialogue saying about that? Sophie Yeah, it's definitely done a full shift there. I just look at it, it's housed these three wild boys, which is crazy when I look at them and how much they're changing day to day. And I think, yeah, I don't care about the kind of stretch marks and I don't care that I've got like a pouch there now because I'm able to do all the things that I want to do. I'm, you know, I've got, I'm very healthy, I'm able to exercise freely and I don't, I kind of look at all the other illness and things in society and I'm much more able to reflect and feel grateful rather than kind of hating the odd kind of different bits and pieces. Yumi You're the founder of the Australian Birth Stories Podcast. Listening to so many stories, do you get a sense of how women feel about their bodies after this just life-changing experience of birth? Sophie I think they find it very difficult in that first 12 months particularly because you're sleep deprived, you're fluctuating, trying to learn how to feed or navigate kind of, yeah, all that sleeplessness. I think people, it's very, very natural to kind of not love your body straight away and it does take a bit of time and it does take, I mean, so much of motherhood and birth is surrendering and you almost have to surrender to that at least that first year. But I mean, people argue whether postpartum's forever, but I think that that first year is really pivotal in kind of finding your feet and kind of finding a new identity and part of that is coming to accept a different body. And I think you're not the same person emotionally and physically, so it would be unrealistic for your body to look the same. Yumi You were talking about how you loved your pregnant body and you'd go out in tight fitting clothes and wear the jumpsuits and whatnot and people were kind of loving you and you were loving on yourself. Should we be celebrating a post birth body or a post pregnant body in the same way? Sophie Yeah, definitely, if not more, but I think it's hard to project that too because I think when women see other women out at cafes with newborns and things, they've probably spent quite a few hours preparing themselves and they've tried to go out the door and they've had to do a full outfit change of both the baby and the mother and things like that. But I think we don't see the kind of disheveled mother navigating all those things that are leaking and things. And I mean, I don't know, I don't feel like we should all go out with our hair dripping with sweat and milk all over us, but we need to make people aware that behind closed doors, particularly in those first six weeks, it's messy and don't kind of try and fit into a certain look. Just allow yourself that time and space to get to know your baby and to get to know yourself and your body again. Yumi So, Sophie, do you have any helpful ways of reframing the ideas around when you're having a wobbly time with your body? Sophie I just think there's so many women that would love to be in your shoes. We've just interviewed so many women that have just strived to become mothers and they would be so envious to have a deflated belly and saggy boobs right now and a baby that's kept them up all night. So, I think just trying to practice kind of self-compassion and kindness and gratitude towards the fact that you have been able to reach this point in your life because there'd be a million people wanting to trade places with you. Tegan I might look at myself in the mirror and have a thought about myself I'd rather not have. Yumi This is Tegan. She's a mum to a four-year-old girl and a freshly cooked four-month-old baby boy. Like the other mums we've spoken to, giving birth has changed how Tegan feels about her body. Tegan Oh, that belly might look a little bit bigger than I'd like, but it was your baby's house, you know, and would I take that back? Never in a million years. Yumi While she came into the studio for a chat, Tegan's very cute pudding-y baby was waiting outside. Tegan I just gave him a massive feed out the front actually. Yumi So cute! So cute. I love a little fat baby. Tegan He's quite a chonker. Yumi A chonker. Do you really feel like you're nailing it when you've got a little chonky baby? Tegan Yeah, there's something like almost kind of primordial about that I think. Yumi Oh definitely. Tegan The fruits of your labour. Yumi The fatty wrists and the little fat hands. Tegan Yeah, the croissant thighs. Yumi While we can talk endlessly about the deliciousness of a baby's fat rolls, as women we often can't find that same tenderness for our own bodies as we grow up. Starting from when she was a teenager, Teagan had a tricky relationship with how she looked. Tegan I would eat and exercise to punish my body. I received messages really early and very clearly that my body wasn't the ideal. Yumi In high school, Teagan started dating a guy who some thought was out of her league, including her teacher who told Teagan she should count herself lucky that he picked her. Tegan Because I wasn't one of the, I guess you know, the super gorgeous girls. Yumi Really? Tegan Yeah. Yumi So it was like, whoa, you did alright for yourself. Tegan Yeah. That was absolutely the message. And I feel when I look back on that now that that really stuck, that went in. And so it created this relationship with my body where I thought of it not as like an instrument but as an ornament. Yumi Did that impact how you felt having sex? Tegan Absolutely it did. I was not present during sex at all. It was about being as far away from the presence as I could be really. And really focusing on what was happening for my partner. And definitely not confident or comfortable. I would say that when I was younger, most of my experiences I would have used alcohol, you know, to kind of get through. Yumi In the couple of years before getting pregnant, Teagan started mending her difficult relationship with her body. And then when she fell pregnant for the first time, she felt that delightful sass of appreciation. Tegan I felt hot when I was pregnant. Like I would catch myself in the mirror and be like, ooh, she looks good. Yumi After the birth of her first baby, Teagan felt empowered by what her body could do. Tegan Giving birth is a wonderful experience, but it's also deeply traumatic to your body. Like it's a huge thing. It shouldn't be downplayed in any way. And I remember sitting up in hospital bed. I work in a maternity hospital, so I actually had her at my work. Yumi Wow. Tegan Yeah. And wanting to take her around to show my colleagues. Like literally, like, look what I did. Like I was so proud of my body. Yumi But when she took her baby home, Teagan was overwhelmed by the amount of work and had unrealistic expectations about what she should be able to do in those early postpartum days. Tegan I thought that you should go for 5k walks three days after having a baby. Like I thought that, because I didn't know any better. Yumi The gruelling slog of those newborn days were made harder by the fact that Teagan was still in the middle of Melbourne's now infamous COVID lockdowns. Tegan I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and didn't have a community around me to support me in that. And absolutely wasn't able to have anyone come into the home to care for me. I didn't really have a lot of choice other than to kind of get up and start cooking straight away and start doing the laundry straight away. Yumi Teagan wanted to make sure she had a different experience after the birth of her second child. Tegan I really rested as much as I could on the couch and took care of my body, you know, and really tried to respect it as much as I could for what it had done. I was lucky enough to have a postpartum doula who came and provided some care to me every week with a massage. And then to culminate at the end of six weeks, she gave me this beautiful ritual called a closing of the bones, where for five hours, she just absolutely loved on me. So she gave me this beautiful massage with medicated warm oil. It was divine. And then I sat in this gorgeous steam tent that she'd built and had a beautiful herbal bath. And then she wrapped me up from top to toe, like my head, my eyes, my feet. She was really paying honour and respect to me and my body as a woman who'd just given birth. Yumi Tegan's ceremony of getting wrapped up tight like a mummified cat might not be for everyone, but it sounds brilliant to me. And it's what she needed to feel validated. Maybe to make the transition from Egyptian mummy to yummy mummy, functional mummy, not dead mummy, happy mummy. We can actually benefit from hearing people say, hey, well done. You created life. Good job. That was really hard and you did it. Tegan When you conceive and then carry and then birth a baby and then feed them, you know, if that's what you do, that's enormous. Yumi Just hearing you say this, Teagan, feels healing for me, actually. Tegan Mmm, that's beautiful. Yumi Did it feel revolutionary for you? Especially given that you have already had a baby and done it differently. Did this version of it feel like you were doing something very bold? Tegan Yes, it did. It felt like I was reclaiming a lot of things and it felt like the ultimate kind of feminist act in a lot of ways. Like we're told after we have babies in lots and lots of different ways that it's about, you know, bouncing back, you know, who can get to the cafe quickest, you know, who can go to the gym quickest. And those things are fine if that's your choice. But I also think it's important to know that there's other ways and, you know, the choice to stay home and to make sure I had this beautiful postpartum care felt like I was really taking something back and saying, actually, what I've done is worth this and I am worth this as well. Yumi You said you used to do punishing exercise and punishing things with food. What does that mean? Can you explain what you mean by that? Tegan Yeah. So I'd be like, okay, well, I've eaten X, Y, Z. So I need to go and do a really tough vinyasa yoga class now. Like I need to do a hot vinyasa yoga to balance the scales really. That was what that was about. Or I haven't gone to yoga or I haven't run this week. So I can't eat that bagel that I really want. For example. Or I just feel bad about it. Like I just feel really guilty about not exercising or eating things that I shouldn't eat in inverted commas. Yumi Yeah. So it's sometimes it doesn't change the behaviour, but you just got guilt around it. Yeah. Tegan Or I felt really ashamed. It's like, oh, I probably could look like Kate Moss if I didn't eat that bagel. Finally it was just the fucking bagel. Just one bagel. But since having my kids, I feel like I don't do that at all anymore. Yumi Tegan doesn't just accept that her body has changed since giving birth. She has a radical love for herself. Tegan I feel amazing. It seems like a bit extraordinary to me. Like I probably shouldn't feel this way. I feel like that's the message that we get. But I feel incredible. Yumi For myself, I also found giving birth was a bit of a leveller because there I was burdened with all those imperfections, but I still made this perfect baby. But listen, before we get too smug with post-birth body love, I do want to point out that a lot of the toll taken on the body from carrying pregnancies is debited long after delivery. It's like baby now, pay later, wait 10 or 20 years and suddenly you're cashing in your pelvic floor. The prolapse collector is knocking at your door. Oh, and urinary incontinence is coming to have a word with your undies. But listen, whether you have given birth or never have and maybe never will, I will repeat what I say to my own kids. The body that you have, it's like the car you're going to be driving until the day you die. Your car might not be perfect, but it's yours and you don't get to trade it in for another one. Your beautiful, unique, chonky or otherwise vehicle that carts around your soul and your thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams. Why hate on the only car you'll ever drive? Make the best of it. It's a real tooter. Yumi This podcast was produced on the lands of the Gundungurra and Gadigal peoples. Ladies We Need To Talk is mixed by Ann-Marie de Bettencor. It's produced by Elsa Silberstein. Supervising Producer is Tamar Cranswick and our Executive Producer is Alex Lollback. This series was created by Claudine Ryan.
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Media Watch: Monday 14/7/2025
Media Watch NEW EPISODE ABC NEWS Current Affairs Australian Watch Article share options Share this on Facebook Twitter Send this by Email Copy link WhatsApp Messenger It's the show everybody loves until they're on it. Media Watch returns with a new host. Sitting in the hot seat will be four-time Walkley award-winner Linton Besser, an investigative reporter and former foreign correspondent. New episodes available every Monday night. Add to your Watchlist so you don't miss an episode.
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Fries with that
And now, from toxic mushrooms to French fries. And some fast-food-fun on Nine's Today: TIM DAVIES: … it's national fry-day. F-R-Y get it? SARAH ABO: Ahhh, very good, very good … - Today, Nine Network, 11 July 2025 Yes, television's most seasoned news professionals turning a forensic eye to the real dilemma facing Australians—where to for hot chips? SARAH ABO: Those Guzman ones are the best … - Today, Nine Network, 11 July 2025 Karl though, ever the company man, knew right from the start on which side Today was buttered. Or is that battered? SARAH ABO: … Trust me I know my chips. I know my fries. KARL STEFANOVIC: But do you know how big a sponsor McDonald's is of our show? - Today, Nine Network, 11 July 2025 And there was something of a theme during Karl's blind taste test, see if you can pick it? KARL STEFANOVIC: It's a bigger chip, um, so it's not McDonald's … KARL STEFANOVIC: McDonald's … SARAH ABO: I bet he'll say McDonald's for this one as well … TIM DAVIES: There you go, yeah it's great, there you go … KARL STEFANOVIC: … no, that's McDonald's. - Today, Nine Network, 11 July 2025 Karl Stefanovic, wasted on the small screen. And don't fret, his hungry crew weren't overlooked either with salt and sugar and fat for all. In the biz, they call this colour and movement. And for better or worse the red and canary yellow is something of a perennial on Today, because just a week earlier: JAYNE AZZOPARDI: Dicky! Busted! KARL STEFANOVIC: … we do have a bit of Macca's in front of us right now, which is very distracting … - Today, Nine Network, 3 July 2025 Karl Stefanovic and Jayne Azzopardi could barely rouse themselves from the joy of the moment to conduct the very serious business of television news, crossing live to none other than the new boss of McDonald's whose company had just lost a landmark industrial relations ruling: JOE CHICZEWSKI: … we'll reflect on that and make some reactions and decisions shortly. KARL STEFANOVIC: When will you do that? JOE CHICZEWSKI: Um you know, over the coming weeks … - Today, Nine Network, 3 July 2025 Golden arches on his lapel the chief executive was then offered a chance to wax lyrical on a menu price freeze before deftly batting away a question from Jayne on whether healthy items might see a price drop too. Then with that out of the way, it was on to the business at hand: KARL STEFANOVIC: … for me, I'm just going the regular, the Big Mac, and I put the fries in the middle of it … JOE CHICZEWSKI: … I'm the same way, Karl … KARL STEFANOVIC: I'm with you, brother … JOE CHICZEWSKI: I recommend trying the new McWings, they're fantastic. KARL STEFANOVIC: Ah, I love 'em! JAYNE AZZOPARDI: You know, I saw an ad for that, McDonald's doing chicken wings. KARL STEFANOVIC: You know what, McDonald's does it better than the Dirty Bird. - Today, Nine Network, 3 July 2025 In 2020, Media Watch pulled up Nine's breakfast news show for eerily similar programming: ALLISON LANGDON: I've organised a little bit of a peace offering for you guys … ALLISON LANGDON: It's as easy as that I tell you. KARL STEFANOVIC: I'm getting emotional … KARL STEFANOVIC: I gotta tell ya, this is the best burger I've ever had. That is a great burger. - Today, Nine Network, 14 October 2020 The Australian Communications and Media Authority subsequently found Nine had breached the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice for failing to tell its viewers that it had disguised as genuine editorial what was of course a paid-up ad. Last week, we asked Nine whether Today or anyone on the show had any kind of commercial arrangement with McDonald's at the time these recent segments went to air. A spokesperson told us: There is no commercial arrangement between the Today show, its hosts and McDonald's, and McDonald's is not a sponsor of the program. Nine takes its compliance obligations very seriously, and there is no breach of the Code of Practice. - Email, Nine Spokesperson, 14 July 2025 Which means of course Today has been happily subsidising the marketing budget of one of the world's largest fast-food chains for months and months: KARL STEFANOVIC: Do you mean a McDonald's cheeseburger? Because they're wonderful … SARAH ABO: … and some nuggets please … DANIKA MASON: … a little hashbrown in the morning … - Today Nine Network 1 July 2025 KARL STEFANOVIC: That'll go well with my Macca's run, arriving in about five minutes … - Today, Nine Network, 14 April 2025 JAYNE AZZOPARDI: … good morning, and congratulations on this big achievement. - Today, Nine Network, 9 April 2025 SARAH ABO: Talk me through this new Happy Meal collaboration with the AFL, it's my favourite meal by the way. - Today, Nine Network, 26 February 2025 Even piling up the Big Macs on-set when the segment is about another burger altogether. Last week, I sent a few of these clips to Today's inaugural host Steve Liebmann, who fronted the program for almost 20 years, and asked him what he thought: How times have changed! - Text message, Steve Liebmann, Former Today Host, 11 July 2025 Indeed. Because these days what are viewers to make of Karl's jokey declaration of a McDonald's sponsorship but Nine's insistence it receives not a nickel in return for Today's routine and generous treatment of the junk food brand? It's hard to judge what's worse, actually integrating ads into your editorial programming and being caught out by the regulator, or failing to realise you may as well cash-in on what looks to the rest of us like promos galore.
