Based on the podcast of the same name, Alex Casey, Michele A’Court and Leonie Hayden set out to jelly wrestle with every issue under the sun. First up: periods.

The Spinoff apologises for an error in the above video: Jill Brinsdon was the first female creative director in New Zealand, rather than the first female creative.

Hold onto your tampon strings, the first episode of the On the Rag webseries is here! Join Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Michèle A’Court from the On the Rag podcast as they dive into the hilarious, messy, stressful, hidden world of periods. What is a period exactly? What’s the blue stuff in the ads? Who has the best period horror story of all time? And why all the shame?

Leonie goes on a journey to rediscover what her Māori ancestors called “the divine river”, Alex delves into the history of sanitary product advertising in New Zealand, and Michèle breaks down the numbers on period poverty. We are also joined in the studio by Amanda Chapman from The United Sustainable Sisters, who shows us how to sew our own reusable pads.

Based on the podcast of the same name, On the Rag has had more than 130,000 downloads since it began in 2016, each episode tackling life, media and current affairs from the New Zealand woman’s perspective. The webseries comprises eight episodes, arriving in the second week of every month (aka that time of the month).

For the next eight months we’ll be jelly wrestling with every issue under the sun, from expectations around body hair, the history of abortion in New Zealand, being a woman in the online hellscape and more. No subject is taboo, because On the Rag embodies a safe place for women to discuss all the things they’ve long been told are not OK to talk about publicly.

On the Rag is made with the support of NZ On Air.