Episode 1: January 1-9, 2000

Olivia introduces a new podcast project centered on a collection of audio files discovered on her mother’s old laptop, dating back to the year 2000. These recordings capture a long-distance voicemail exchange between two friends, Jess and Kat, navigating their early twenties in different hemispheres. Jess describes her arrival in Auckland, New Zealand, detailing the physical challenges of the hilly terrain, the transition from London winter to summer, and the discomfort of sitting near smoking sections on long-haul flights. In response, Kat shares the struggles of living in London, including the difficulty of finding acting work due to specific regional accent requirements and her reluctant acceptance of a bartending job under a boss nicknamed "Microwave Tuna Lee." The exchange highlights the personal anxieties of young adulthood, from financial pressures and roommate dynamics to the spark of new romantic interests, while Olivia seeks listener input to uncover more about the people mentioned in these twenty-year-old messages.