Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to a very different episode of the
Speaker 1: Masphony podcast and what's going to be the first episode
Speaker 1: in a new little investigations series. I'm recording this intro
Speaker 1: right now in a hotel room in Bali.
Speaker 2: I just met Beck, who has also.
Speaker 1: Just landed in Bali ahead of undergoing what is possibly
Speaker 1: one of the most controversial new cosmetic surgeries out there.
Speaker 3: I'm standing for a nervous Josh, what am I doing?
Speaker 1: What all? Well, this isn't a holiday, is it.
Speaker 4: It's not a holiday? Nervous, but I can't work the
Speaker 4: things we do for beauty.
Speaker 1: And over the next twenty four hours, ten more leading
Speaker 1: Australian influencers are going to arrive here or to undergo
Speaker 1: the same procedure. What if this is a big, big
Speaker 1: mistake which I didn't even know existed until a couple
Speaker 1: of months ago, and it isn't even yet available in Australia.
Speaker 1: But you can always say no at any point. I
Speaker 1: can I can't say no at any point.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I imagine you're quite confused listening to this right now,
Speaker 1: and don't worry, because I have been too. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to take you to the very start of how
Speaker 1: I even ended up here in BALLEI investigating the actual
Speaker 1: reality of this latest craze. I think we can call
Speaker 1: it in the cosmetic surgery world, which, trust me, very
Speaker 1: soon you will not be able to escape in the
Speaker 1: press and in your news feeds. Okay, to take this
Speaker 1: back to the very very very start. As some of
Speaker 1: you may know, my media career started in the world
Speaker 1: of celebrity magazines back in the UK many years ago.
Speaker 1: At twenty one, I was offered an internship at a
Speaker 1: gossip magazine in London to help with their social media.
Speaker 1: Within two weeks, the team on that magazine offered me
Speaker 1: the role of junior writer. I said to them when
Speaker 1: they offered me that, like, yo, actually, like I don't
Speaker 1: know how.
Speaker 2: To write or interview people or any of that. I
Speaker 2: dropped out of school.
Speaker 1: But the editors told me that that was okay because
Speaker 1: I apparently had the most important thing, which was passion,
Speaker 1: And they said, like, take the job, Josh, and we
Speaker 1: will teach you to be a proper journalist on the go.
Speaker 1: And yeah they did, and within a year of taking
Speaker 1: that junior writer role, I'd been promoted twice to the
Speaker 1: senior writer. I was nominated for Rising star at the
Speaker 1: British Media Awards, and I was suddenly doing all the
Speaker 1: big cover features for the magazine every single week. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Josh from Now Magazine and today I'm joined by
Speaker 1: the Queen that is Para Hilton in London with Zoella.
Speaker 1: And back then when my editors were training me, they
Speaker 1: shared with me the biggest secret behind every celebrity interview
Speaker 1: and magazine, and that was that I must ask every
Speaker 1: female celebrity about the free bees, which are boys, babies
Speaker 1: and bodies aka boys. Like I'd sit down with someone
Speaker 1: and be like, yo, tell me about your love life,
Speaker 1: what's going on there? Because you know we all love
Speaker 1: a gossip and gossip cells, babies. I would have to
Speaker 1: ask like do you have kids? Do you want kids?
Speaker 1: Do you want to freeze your eggs if you haven't
Speaker 1: got a partner? Would you do IVF? Like all these
Speaker 1: things because I was told most of our readers and mothers,
Speaker 1: so anything on that topic will resonate with our readers
Speaker 1: and then bodies.
Speaker 2: And I was told by.
Speaker 1: My editors I must ask every female celebrity you want
Speaker 1: to die? Have you lost weight? Have you put weight on?
Speaker 1: Have you had any work done? What work would you
Speaker 1: like done? I was even told to ask them like, Hey,
Speaker 1: what do you hate most about your body? And if
Speaker 1: you could change anything right now, like what would you change?
Speaker 1: And back then, my editors explained to me that we
Speaker 1: must do that because having someone rich and famous talk
Speaker 1: about and insecurity would make our regular everyday readers feel
Speaker 1: better about themselves, and it would also make the celebrity
Speaker 1: that little bit more relatable. But gradually, over the years
Speaker 1: I slowly realized that that just wasn't true, and I
Speaker 1: realized that I was told to ask the celebrities those
Speaker 1: questions so we the magazine, we could exploit their insecurities
Speaker 1: for profit while pushing out these unrealistic beauty standards onto
Speaker 1: the unsuspecting public who bought into every diet, every fitness program,
Speaker 1: and every cosmetic procedure that.
Speaker 2: Our magazine and every magazine.
Speaker 1: Back then pushed out on the cover every single week.
Speaker 1: And everything we did was part of like this twisted,
Speaker 1: self proclaimed body positivity movement that did nothing but essentially
Speaker 1: just made people feel worse about themselves and the celebrity included.
Speaker 1: And back then, I'll admit I didn't know any better,
Speaker 1: and it took me years to think like, hey, should
Speaker 1: we be reducing every woman out there down to these
Speaker 1: three topics as if that's.
Speaker 2: All they are?
Speaker 1: And like back then again, I was a kid and
Speaker 1: I was grateful to have what I thought was my
Speaker 1: dream job, especially because I didn't go to UNI, I
Speaker 1: didn't study like this kind of just fell in my lap.
Speaker 1: And those in charge, like the editors who were training me,
Speaker 1: they all had decades of editorial experience under their belts,
Speaker 1: and to me and to all the other young staff
Speaker 1: who I suppose of my age and are now maybe
Speaker 1: leading new publications in this new form of media. Like
Speaker 1: back then the editors what they told was their word
Speaker 1: was gospel. But now, more than ever, I've essentially realized
Speaker 1: just how problematic that all was, and even my small
Speaker 1: part of it all, which is why I think this
Speaker 1: little Bally podcast series you're about to listen to is important.
Speaker 1: But before we get to this, now, in BALI me
Speaker 1: working at that magazine and then as a showbies journal
Speaker 1: for years, I essentially had a front row seat to
Speaker 1: every plastic surgery craze that came and when, and like
Speaker 1: especially through my regular often weekly interviews with people like
Speaker 1: Katie Price in the UK and Charlotte Crosby from Jordie Shaw,
Speaker 1: which I continued doing once I moved to Australia. And
Speaker 1: some of you may actually remember me from briefly appearing
Speaker 1: on The Charlotte Crosby Show during an episode where Charlotte
Speaker 1: was mid breakup, quite emotional, and her management while she
Speaker 1: was in Sydney for Ah, great, Charlotte's vulnerable and a
Speaker 1: bit of a mess. Let's bring Josh in who she
Speaker 1: knows like to just interview her about the breakup.
Speaker 3: I feel like shit, I've got one last interview to do.
Speaker 3: At least I've been interviewed by this guy before. She's awful,
Speaker 3: so I don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a weird episode. But back to the point.
Speaker 1: I spent years interviewing Charlotte, and in those interviews I
Speaker 1: documented every little.
Speaker 2: Tweak that she made to her body.
Speaker 1: And every time like we did a new interview and
Speaker 1: she was telling me about whatever she'd done, I did always.
Speaker 2: Think to myself, is any of this necessary?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Why are we or why are you? Why is anyone
Speaker 2: doing this to themselves?
Speaker 4: Hi?
Speaker 1: Everyone, I'm in Australia.
Speaker 3: I think what everyone really wants to know is about
Speaker 3: my new nes Woo, shiny glaring unicorns.
Speaker 2: It looks best from the side for you.
Speaker 1: And every time Charlotte got something new done and she
Speaker 1: would proudly share it through people like me. Then you know,
Speaker 1: we'd put that content out and people would respond, not
Speaker 1: always positively, which he's expected, and then we, as the magazine,
Speaker 1: would do another piece on that with a headline like
Speaker 1: Charlotte hits back at the trolls, just to keep fanning
Speaker 1: those flames of outrage. And a lot of the time, though,
Speaker 1: what the media and the magazines and even like the
Speaker 1: Daily mel will say in the headlines is cruel trolls.
Speaker 1: It's often not cruel trolls. It's just regular people going yo,
Speaker 1: I don't think this is healthy and should we be
Speaker 1: pushing this onto young girls? And of course I am
Speaker 1: a big believer in your body, your choice. Everyone is
Speaker 1: entitled to do what makes them happy or do what
Speaker 1: brings them a confidence that they've always lacked, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: But where is the line between self love and just
Speaker 1: an endless search for validation.
Speaker 3: I had a nose job. I don't want to go
Speaker 3: back and have more searching because nothing else I want
Speaker 3: to change. I think if you feel if you're a
Speaker 3: bit of an insecure person or you're unhappy with a
Speaker 3: lot of things on your body, then yeah, but I
Speaker 3: don't know whether it is I don't know whether it
Speaker 3: is addictive.
Speaker 1: When I first started in this industry at that magazine
Speaker 1: in age twenty one, it was all about the breast
Speaker 1: implants or the boltons as they were called back then,
Speaker 1: and there was obviously noose jobs and LiPo in the
Speaker 1: mix too, which back then they were like the two
Speaker 1: of the most popular procedures out there for people wanting
Speaker 1: to change their appearance, and they were like the original
Speaker 1: holy trinity of procedures for people in the spotlight. But
Speaker 1: then along came the Kardashians and Instagram, and suddenly it
Speaker 1: was all about lip filler and then cheek filler and
Speaker 1: filler everywhere, and then after that it was the Brazilian
Speaker 1: bum lift, which to me again is when this pursuit
Speaker 1: of perfection it just started to seem like extreme and dangerous.
Speaker 1: There's something called the Brazilian butt lift, which is fat
Speaker 1: transferred to the buttocks, and it has the highest death
Speaker 1: rate in plastic surgery. Like it got to the point
Speaker 1: where you've got young girls literally killing themselves in a
Speaker 1: bid to try and look like other girls they've seen
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Now, though, and as some of you may
Speaker 1: have noticed, over the last couple of years, the desire
Speaker 1: for big breasts and a big bum has been replaced
Speaker 1: by a more natural look. And one leading plastic surgeon
Speaker 1: in Australia I spoke to who while researching for this
Speaker 1: podcast series, he told me that people are now craving
Speaker 1: and paying a lot of money for more conservative looks,
Speaker 1: and most of his clients are now chasing subtle looks
Speaker 1: over those extreme ones of recent years, and they go
Speaker 1: to him wanting smaller chests and smaller behinds and a
Speaker 1: smaller waist, or as it's now known, the snatched waist.
Speaker 2: And for a brief period of time, the snatched.
Speaker 1: Waste was done through rib removal, which is extreme and dangerous,
Speaker 1: to the point that around the world most surgeons just
Speaker 1: flat out refused to perform that procedure because of the
Speaker 1: risks associated. But over the last few years, the apparent
Speaker 1: safe alternative to this has taken off, and especially in America,
Speaker 1: and this is known technically as rib recontouring, but across
Speaker 1: social media and especially TikTok it's called the snatched waist.
Speaker 4: If I could only pick one underrated procedure in body contouring,
Speaker 4: its ribra modeling. And the reason why I say that
Speaker 4: is because ribbra modeling is an innovative technique that allows
Speaker 4: us to further sculpt the body in ways that were
Speaker 4: previously unavailable to us. Even though liposuction is a very
Speaker 4: effective technique at sculpting the body and slimming the waistline,
Speaker 4: ribra modeling allows us to take it one step further
Speaker 4: by actually repositioning the ribs slightly inwards, and that allows
Speaker 4: us to achieve anywhere from a two to four inch
Speaker 4: reduction off the waistline, giving you that snatched hourglass look.
Speaker 1: And this is where surgeons, essentially, through like a zero
Speaker 1: point eight millimeter pinpoint on your sides and a needle
Speaker 1: and ultrasound, they can reshape your eleventh and twelve bottom ribs,
Speaker 1: also known as the floating ribs. And when people talk
Speaker 1: about like invasive surgery and stitches and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: this doesn't really have any of that because these no
Speaker 1: wound is just a pinpoint, Like it's all done essentially
Speaker 1: through that I think like a needle or something or
Speaker 1: just that zero upon eight millimeter pinpoint. Yeah, like which
Speaker 1: sounds crazy and like, how's that even possible? But that
Speaker 1: is the new thing, and this procedure is being promoted
Speaker 1: as something that can't be achieved by LiPo or Tommy
Speaker 1: Tuk's or diet or even exercise. You're ether born with
Speaker 1: this snatched bobby like waist or you're not, and if
Speaker 1: you want it, this is now the only way to
Speaker 1: get it. Or that's how it's being promoted at least.
Speaker 2: What if I told.
Speaker 5: You that tomorrow I'm getting a surgery done where they
Speaker 5: remove four of.
Speaker 2: My ribs, Well then I'd be lying.
Speaker 5: But I am going to Scottsdale to see doctor Turn
Speaker 5: and we're doing the rib car procedure. Let me tell
Speaker 5: you a little bit about it.
Speaker 2: A rib car procedure itself.
Speaker 5: Is a way to change the shape of your midsection.
Speaker 5: And that's something I've struggled with my entire life. I
Speaker 5: am SpongeBob SquarePants, just a big old block a brick,
Speaker 5: if you will, No matter what weight I get to,
Speaker 5: no matter what exercises I've done, and I've been trying
Speaker 5: my entire life, I have this shape. And for me,
Speaker 5: I would prefer something pulled in with a little bit
Speaker 5: more femininity.
Speaker 1: And six months ago when I first came across this,
Speaker 1: it was when Mamma Mia, the website in Australia did
Speaker 1: a big feature on it, calling it the next big
Speaker 1: thing on the cosmetic surgery scene. Prior to that, the
Speaker 1: New York Times did a big feature on it. As
Speaker 1: it grew in popularity in America especially, and as of
Speaker 1: right now this moment me recording this in Bali, this
Speaker 1: procedure is being called the fastest growing cosmetic procedure in
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 3: I'm four weeks post up rib remodeling, let's talk about it.
Speaker 1: And it's been performed now just over three thousand times,
Speaker 1: which is men. It was only a matter of time
Speaker 1: before it hit the Australian market.
Speaker 3: If you are new to this channel, my name is Samantha.
Speaker 3: I'm a pull start provider in Chicago, Illinois, and this
Speaker 3: video is about my journey for the river modeling procedures.
Speaker 1: So a few weeks ago now towards the end of May.
Speaker 1: Monique Molly, a girl I met when she first appeared
Speaker 1: on the Bachelor in two thousand and nine. She messaged
Speaker 1: me to say, Hey, Josh, I'm off the Ballei in
Speaker 1: June with a group of other Australian influencers, and we're
Speaker 1: all going to undergo this procedure, and she said, hey,
Speaker 1: it could be good for you to talk about on
Speaker 1: the podcast, like this podcast. The Initially I was like, nah,
Speaker 1: because I don't want to be seen to be endorsing
Speaker 1: it in any way because I don't necessarily agree with it.
Speaker 1: I don't actually really agree with most cosmetic procedures. Again,
Speaker 1: your body, your choice. Everyone out there make their own decision.
Speaker 1: But me personally, I'm just a bit like is most
Speaker 1: of this necessary? Probably not, But again, who am I
Speaker 1: to tell others what to do with their own body?
Speaker 1: And then then after that message from Monigue, I started
Speaker 1: to think more about it, and I started researching, and
Speaker 1: I became curious, and firstly, are as curious who were
Speaker 1: the other girls joining her on this trip? And this
Speaker 1: is before I even realized Beck was one of them,
Speaker 1: who obviously I've done a lot with on this podcast
Speaker 1: over the last six months.
Speaker 2: And then there's a couple of other mass girls.
Speaker 1: But secondly I then started to think like, hey, regardless
Speaker 1: who these girls are, I think it's fair to say
Speaker 1: that between them they'll have say a minimum of what
Speaker 1: two million followers, And that's two million Australian women and
Speaker 1: potential young girls who will soon be having this procedure
Speaker 1: and the results from this trip in BALI forced into
Speaker 1: their news feeds, and that's two million people. I thought, Hey,
Speaker 1: they're only going to see these strong before and after
Speaker 1: pictures from these influencers, presumably with no wider context or balanced,
Speaker 1: unbiased perspective of this new craze. And that's when I
Speaker 1: started to entertain this idea of coming here to document it.
Speaker 1: And I thought, well, I want to find out more
Speaker 1: about this. So I reached out to the company behind
Speaker 1: this trip and I set up a call, and initially
Speaker 1: that was just to find out, like, Yo, what the
Speaker 1: hell is actually going on here? Okay, so it's June fourth.
Speaker 1: I've just got off the phone with the owners of
Speaker 1: what's it called snatchedwate dot com? Are you?
Speaker 2: They're the company which are.
Speaker 1: Apparently the world's leading destination to rib recontouring I think
Speaker 1: it's called, and they're the ones who have essentially arranged
Speaker 1: this trip for Monique and Beck. And I've now found
Speaker 1: out there's like some other maths people and the other
Speaker 1: influencers going on this trip to Bali, and their business
Speaker 1: model is essentially people go to them being like, hey,
Speaker 1: we want to do this procedure in Bali, and they
Speaker 1: then arrange the flights, the hotel, the consultations, the surgery itself,
Speaker 1: the recovery stuff, the checks that all this in a
Speaker 1: like a five star luxury hotelity apparently get someone who
Speaker 1: meets you off the plane like as a VIP and
Speaker 1: they're essentially like selling a luxury package hology that just
Speaker 1: happens to have a surgery in the middle of it.
Speaker 1: And like the hotelity apparently put all the girls uppert
Speaker 1: which I think they're gonna put me up at if
Speaker 1: I go is like voted the best in Asia or something,
Speaker 1: and they were saying, like, you know how historically a
Speaker 1: lot of Ozzie would go back in the day to
Speaker 1: was it like Thailand to get the boobs done, and
Speaker 1: like in the UK, it's actually a running joke how
Speaker 1: people go to Turkey to get like Turkey teeth veniers
Speaker 1: and hair transplants. Like this is now apparently the new thing,
Speaker 1: Like Bali is apparently now the destination for a lot
Speaker 1: of cosmetic procedures. But especially this like rib recontouring thing
Speaker 1: and I'm not call then I just had so many
Speaker 1: questions for the team, and they just said, like, yo, Josh,
Speaker 1: just come over document it, like you can have access
Speaker 1: to whatever you want, you can see whatever you want.
Speaker 2: And he said, like, sure, a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Are doing this procedure for vanity reasons, which I mean
Speaker 1: their choice, but he also said there's a lot more
Speaker 1: to it and like emotional reasons and mums who apparently
Speaker 1: I think he was saying when a lot of women
Speaker 1: are pregnant, their ribs spott and ribs can flare out
Speaker 1: and they don't go back again. I need to research
Speaker 1: into this because I'm just going off their word and
Speaker 1: this is also new to me, but I just wanted
Speaker 1: to get my initial thoughts after this phone call. And
Speaker 1: yeah again he just said come on the trip. We'd
Speaker 1: love to have you. And I said potentially. Let me
Speaker 1: think about it, and then I said, like if I do,
Speaker 1: I want to have a few things set out. I
Speaker 1: want a few conditions for you to agree. Like who
Speaker 1: am I saying I've got my conditions. If I come,
Speaker 1: you've got to accept my conditions, like the fuck A.
Speaker 2: Buy, which yeah, I will.
Speaker 1: Explain properly when I get back to my house okay,
Speaker 1: my studio in a few minutes. I just had that
Speaker 1: call walking around my suburb, which is where I'm recording
Speaker 1: this afterwards.
Speaker 2: If it sounds a bit shit, sorry about that.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to get my initial thoughts because I'm
Speaker 1: all hyped up thinking I'm fucking Louis Ferroux or something
Speaker 1: investigating the manus.
Speaker 2: For it's not the manus fit, it's the opposite.
Speaker 1: It's the ribosphere. Also, lovely weather today for winter if
Speaker 1: anyone's in Sydney. So now I don't even know if
Speaker 1: you'll ever hear this, and by the time you hear
Speaker 1: it might be shit weather. Anyway, right back.
Speaker 2: To the point.
Speaker 1: Back to the point, Okay, my big two conditions to
Speaker 1: even coming here to BALI. Firstly, I said, yo, I
Speaker 1: do not want paying at all, because if you do
Speaker 1: pay me, sure like I do sponsorships on this podcast,
Speaker 1: but if we did that, it's gonna then feel like
Speaker 1: a paid endorsement. And endorsing something and just documenting it
Speaker 1: are two very different things. And I don't want to
Speaker 1: be paid because I don't want to endorse it. And
Speaker 1: I said, sure, you can pay for my flight and
Speaker 1: accommodation on the agreement that I will provide some coverage
Speaker 1: on this podcast and through my socials. But you're gonna
Speaker 1: have no control or input in any of that. You
Speaker 1: don't get to dictate or know what I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say it's great if I don't think
Speaker 1: it's great. I said, my promise is I will come
Speaker 1: and I will be honest about everything how I find it,
Speaker 1: and with the girls coming on this trip, I will
Speaker 1: just discuss their journey from start to finish landing in
Speaker 1: Bali to leaving in Bali rather than just posting what
Speaker 1: I before and after picture that I actually most media
Speaker 1: are gonna do once they all post about doing this.
Speaker 1: And I also said, like, if I come, I am
Speaker 1: going to ask the girls firstly, why are they doing.
Speaker 2: This and is it necessary?
Speaker 1: And also yeah, you're telling me like it's super safe
Speaker 1: and like there's no stitches. There's not really anything because
Speaker 1: there there's not really anything too stitch because it's so tiny,
Speaker 1: But is it actually safe? Like again, this is such
Speaker 1: a new thing that isn't even available in Australia. So
Speaker 1: I said, for me, anything I do transparency is going
Speaker 1: to be the key. And as Mama Mia said six
Speaker 1: months ago, whether you like it or not, this is
Speaker 1: the next big thing on the cosmetic surgery scene and
Speaker 1: it is going to become harder and harder to escape
Speaker 1: and very soon. Now it's become so accessible to Ozzie's,
Speaker 1: it is going to be pushed onto young Australians very
Speaker 1: hard through social media and the mainstream media. And I
Speaker 1: at least feel that, hey, all those people need to
Speaker 1: know exactly what this entails again rather than just seeing
Speaker 1: it before and after picture, that everyone on this trip
Speaker 1: will post showing what I assume will be amazing results.
Speaker 1: And much to my surprise, once I told the company,
Speaker 1: the team behind Snatched Waste that hey, these are my conditions.
Speaker 1: If you want me, I'm going to do it my
Speaker 1: way and I'm making no promises, and they essentially said, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: we'd love to have here. We've got nothing to hide,
Speaker 1: Come document everything, talk about everything, be honest about everything,
Speaker 1: like they're confident in their whole thing. They told me
Speaker 1: how they've got like the best surgeons in the world
Speaker 1: operating out the hospital they do, or the proceedings in
Speaker 1: here in Bali and so Yeah, hope you're excited for
Speaker 1: part two, which will come very soon. Keep an eye
Speaker 1: on my personal socials TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, just search my
Speaker 1: name because I'll be posting the clips and the visuals
Speaker 1: to everything.
Speaker 2: Then on this pod, they'll be longer form chats.
Speaker 1: With Beck and other pupil like before they go under,
Speaker 1: after they wake up, as they recover me kind of
Speaker 1: asking every step of the way, like yo, again, why
Speaker 1: are you doing this?
Speaker 2: Do you regret it? Is it worth it?
Speaker 1: To me?
Speaker 2: Most surgery is not. But again, their body, their choice,
Speaker 2: say up.