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Simon is packing for a work trip to Sardinia via Venice that may or may not still be above water, while Lee is nursing a resurrected three-week-old voicemail from his own iPad and marvelling at a £2000 folding phone. A friend's line from her work as a couples therapist – point the finger at yourself a little more – tips them into their oldest shared material: Simon's mother's temper, recorded in her own diaries, against the careful, unbreakable Danish teak table that survived Lee's parents' house intact.

Mentioned

• Venice – mentioned regarding an upcoming work trip, with a wry aside about whether it's still above water
• Sardinia – ferry destination for the same trip
• Apple Duo – newly launched foldable Apple phone; its price becomes a running joke about "awesome power" gadgets
• Austin Powers – referenced via the pinky-to-mouth gesture from the Dr. Evil "one million dollars" bit
• Anthropic / Claude – AI company and assistant, referenced in a quick pun ("Miss Anthropic's Claude")
• BBC – broadcaster of an interview in which an AI researcher is asked to put a percentage on the chance AI causes human extinction
• Terminator – cited as the obvious cultural reference point that should have made the AI-extinction answer unsurprising
• Doctor Una / "Couples Therapy" (HBO) – a couples therapist with an HBO show of the same format, clipped for TikTok and Instagram; her line to "point that finger at yourself" becomes the episode's central thread
• Mick Jagger – invoked humorously as the wrong kind of finger-pointing

Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.

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The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original image by H.L.I.T: https://www.flickr.com/photos/29311691@N05/8571921679 (CC BY 2.0)