Rich Text

And she's finally ready to talk about it. So, let's get into it in the way we know best – a podcast chat. 😉If you haven't already linked your subscriber Rich Text feed to your podcast-listening app of choice, instructions are here.Now that it's just our Rich Text besties here...As anyone who has been following us for awhile knows, I (Emma) have spent years stewing in my own feelings of maternal ambivalence. Adam and I truly value the lives that we've built as 38-year-olds without children. I deeply love having the time to really invest in my friendships. I love going out to dinner and brunch and sleeping in. I love being an aunt. (It's really the fucking best!) I love that our apartment feels spacious. I love having disposable income. And yet, while we don't know what the other path, the parental path, looks like in its particulars – and there is a lot about it that scares the fuck out of me – we've never felt confident enough in our childfree status to fully cut off the possibility of taking it.Our collective ambivalence resulted in a kind of decision paralysis. I felt as though two distinct lives were staring me (and us) down, both beautiful and challenging in their own particular ways. And I also knew, that at some point, we simply had to make a choice. So, a choice was made. And as of today, I am 23 weeks pregnant. (!!!) I have a lot more to say about how we came to this decision, all of the complex emotions that have accompanied it, the alternately alienating and liberating nature of pregnancy body changes, my feelings of personal grievance with the MAGA White House baby boom -- and more! – in today's podcast episode. And I hope to expand on some of these topics in essay form over the coming weeks and months. For now, I hope you all enjoy today's conversation. It's vulnerable and honest and the kind of chat that only feels possible to have in the semi-public sphere because we've built such a wonderful community here on Rich Text. So, thank you for all of your support as we head into this new frontier, both professionally here on Patreon and, for me, personally.Share Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

If you’re a Substack subscriber, go check your email for a gift link to access Rich Text! (If it's not there, it will be within an hour or so.) Everyone else, welcome! A little over five years ago, we started Rich Text on Substack because we needed a change. We had been at HuffPost for a decade, from the peak of its heyday to its somewhat ignominious acquisition by BuzzFeed. We had cycled through different positions as writers and editors, and we had survived round after round of layoffs. We had started Here to Make Friends, a feminist reality dating show podcast, and it had lasted despite occasional attempts by management to pivot it to video. We had been lucky enough to collaborate with brilliant editors, writers and producers, but we had also watched those colleagues leave. We were burnt out and rudderless. Our hope was that a little side project on Substack would give us a low-stakes, chill place to mess around, blog, try random stuff, and get back in touch with our voices. A creative refresh, if you will. Then, almost exactly five years ago, the layoff cycle finally came for us. We were called into our virtual HR meetings with a taped (but unedited) “Bachelor” recap still dangling. It was never published. But we weren’t ready to say goodbye to podcasting, and we were suddenly energized by the possibility of taking control of the show, of our writing, and of our creative futures. Substack became not just a space to experiment, but the home base of our entire body of work. And our wonderful subscribers allowed us to keep doing that work – while paying our bills, including Claire’s eye-popping daycare tuition.In so many ways, our time at Substack gave us all of the things we had ever hoped for. We were able to build, brick by brick, a tiny media company of two. We were able to pay for our health care (Emma) and child care (Claire). We found a vibrant community full of brilliant, challenging, funny people – all of whom wanted to analyze culture in the way that we did! After years of being limited to “Bachelor” recaps on our podcast, and following the whims of editorial leadership when it came to story selection, we were able to truly take the reins, writing and podcasting about all the reality shows, rom-coms, weird viral essays, prestige dramas, and sociopolitical trends our little hearts desired. And we got to do it all on our terms, for the best audience in the business. We have never taken these gifts for granted, not for one single day. We recognize how very lucky we are to be able to make a living doing something that we truly love, and we're incredibly, profoundly grateful to all of you for supporting our work.But as with any media ecosystem, even a relatively scrappy indie one, there came challenges. After years of natural growth and support from Substack staffers, both waned. The platform began to prioritize bringing over large, institutional publications and celebrity writers over mid-size publications like ours. Discoverability became more challenging, and Substack kept ending up in the news because of its tacit support for Nazis and transphobes. The latest big development is that Substack has partnered with… Polymarket. All of these things left us with the looming sense that we would have to make the leap to another platform at some point in time. But, of course, making a big change is really fucking scary. Especially when that change could upend your ability to pay your bills. So when Patreon reached out, it felt like a golden opportunity to make a leap with real support – and one we might never get again. Patreon is a platform built originally for podcasters, which is a big part of what we do on Rich Text. We loved the idea of being in a place where audio content is truly valued, and where we can be an active part of shaping what the newsletter product will be in the future. We loved that the financial investment that Patreon was willing to make into our scrappy little media project would allow us to rebuild without complete and total panic haunting us at every turn. Patreon, of course, isn’t perfect. No platform will be. But the hope is that we can write our next chapter sustainably. We want to set ourselves up so that Rich Text is something we can continue making for the next five years and then another five years after that. And we feel like some of the new features we’ll have access to on Patreon – organized collections! The ability to pay for one-off posts or series! More tier options! – will allow us to grow in a healthy way.Now that we’re here, in our unfamiliar new home, surrounded by moving boxes and art we don’t know where to hang yet, it feels a little scary and stressful. There’s a lot to do. But that also means a lot of possibility. All the same things you knew and (hopefully) loved back at Substack will be here: weekly recommendations and podcasts, occasional essays, subscriber chats. We’re also looking forward to experimenting with new features and bonus content – and implementing your feedback from our big reader survey last month! – as we figure out what will make Rich Text itself an even richer text in the coming years. There will be more conversations about the motherhood divide, our personal lives, reality television scandals, bizarre made-for-streaming holiday rom-coms about sexy snowmen and viral essays that set your group chats ablaze. There will be more writing about girl culture, the ways fatherhood is treated vs. motherhood, books we love, TV we love, and progressive politics. Trust us: We KNOW that asking you to change over your subscription to a whole different platform is super annoying. The whole point of a subscription is that it’s seamless! You should never have to think about it! We, too, hate dealing with the process of moving our information over to a new app, linking up custom podcast feeds again, etc. We did not make the choice to inflict this on you lightly. We really believe that Patreon will be a more sustainable and welcoming space for our work and for this community. And we are here – along with the REAL HUMANS of the Patreon team – to make this transition as easy as possible!⚠️ Important note for Substack subscribersIf you’re coming from Substack, we're gifting you access to our paid membership on Patreon. You should have received an email with your redemption link and details on how to claim it.Check your email for details on claiming your FREE access If you’re still running into issues → submit a support requestWhat’s included on Patreon?Free MembershipWeekly Recommendations: Get our weekly dispatch on what we’ve been reading, watching, listening to, buying, and making.Weekly Podcast Previews & Occasional Full Episodes: Listen to periodic full-length episodes of the Rich Text podcast.Essays: Read our occasional musings on topics cultural, political, and personal.💬 Frequent Texter ($6 per month) 💬Access to Rich Text Podcast Episodes: Access our weekly member-only podcast, and the full archive of episodes.Weekly Recommendations: Get our weekly dispatch on what we’ve been reading, watching, listening to, buying, and making.Essays: Read our occasional musings on topics cultural, political, and personal.Comment Access: Post comments on any post and join the community!Rich Text Chat: Connect with other members and discuss your favorite topics, from appointment TV to political news to random gossip, in private, subscriber-only spaces.Reminder: If you’re coming from Substack, your gifted access link is in your email. (If it's not there, it will be soon.) Make sure to redeem it so you’re all set.Thank you for being here! xo Claire & EmmaShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

The bosoms, they are heaving. The corsets, they have been unlaced. With the release of Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,” a film that offers such a stickily horny and romanticized take on Emily Brontë’s tale of emotional trauma and Gothic horrors that multiple critics glossed it as “fan fiction,” it seems that the cultural triumph of the spicy historical romance has been made complete. The arrival of “Bridgerton” season 4 part 2 (the sexy half!) just a couple of weeks later only underlines this. And, generally speaking, we’re not complaining! (Though, in the wake of the overwhelmingly steamy “Heated Rivalry,” the bar for success has been raised.)But, after absorbing the sight of Jacob Elordi lifting Margot Robbie effortlessly by the corset strings to the throbbing beats of Charlie XCX, we’re left wondering if things have been taken a bit far. What is lost from “Wuthering Heights” when it is reduced to a tale of star-crossed lovers who have a boinkfest all over the moors? Is our obsession with smut giving all of us, including Fennell, just the teensiest bit of brain rot? In this episode, we discuss the ongoing boom in sexy costume dramas and its implications. Then we dig into “Bridgerton” season 4 part 2, which manages to bring most of its storylines to a satisfying conclusion after a part 1 overstretched with table-setting. We get into the impossibility of a happy ending for our class-crossing couple that didn’t rely on one fortuitous exception for one lucky illegitimate maid, and the rather rote sex scenes. In an unlikely twist for the romance series, the heart of this drop was its depiction of grief, which was the subject of its most deeply felt and moving scenes. We also discuss Penelope’s retirement, Varley’s return, Lady Danbury’s voyage, and what seems to be coming next for the series.Finally, we turn our focus to “Wuthering Heights.” We share our prior relationships with the Brontë novel, our first impressions of the movie, and our reactions to all the finger-licking and smashed egg yolks. We try to figure out why Robbie and Elordi felt like uncanny dolls, or children in adult bodies, and we talk about Sara Petersen’s essay about the removal of mothers and motherhood from this adaptation. We also discuss the discourse around the whitewashing of Heathcliff and the notable choices Fennell made in casting and storytelling that seem to pointedly center whiteness — and intentionally sanitize the central couple to present them as romantic heroes. References and reading:“Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights Is Fan Fiction,” by Annie Berke“‘Wuthering Heights’ Is Pure Fan Fiction,” by Emma Camp“Finally, a Smooth-Brained Wuthering Heights,” by Allison Willmore“Wuthering Heights Has No Space For Mothers,” by Sara Petersen“Margot Robbie’s hot take on filmmaking goes viral as critics slam her latest movie, ‘Wuthering Heights’,” by Jude Cramer“Wuthering Heights: Emerald Fennell Defends Her Controversial 'Version' of Emily Brontë's Classic Novel,” by Benjamin VanHoose “Wuthering Heights is at its heart a story of class and race. Emerald Fennell has got it all wrong,” by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett“How the Latest "Wuthering Heights" Interpretation Is More Than Just Whitewashing; It’s a Pattern,” by Jess, the PrideBrarian“Jacob Elordi, Heathcliff and the Controversy Over ‘Wuthering Heights’,” by Esther Zuckerman"Is Heathcliff White?” by Jasmine VojdaniTimestamps for easy listening:0:00 — What’s going on with all the period piece smut?6:27 — The second half of “Bridgerton” S4 41:50 — Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights”Share Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

In 2009 on “Tell Me Lies,” Lucy’s life is crashing and burning right into the ground. In 2009 in the real world, Tyra Banks was teaching young women how to “smize” on the hit show “America’s Next Top Model.” This week, we dive into both versions of the late aughts — fictional and reality. After three dark, twisted, and completely fucked up seasons, “Tell Me Lies” came to an end on Tuesday. Showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer announced the news on Instagram on Monday night, writing that “this was always the ending my writing team and I had in mind, and we are insanely proud of it.” She added that the audience’s “incredible response to this season inspired us to explore whether there was another organic way to continue the story, but ultimately we felt it had reached its natural conclusion.” So in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, viewers were left to see if the team could stick the landing and wrap up all of the chaos that had been building in both the 2009 and 2015 timelines. The result was a mixed bag. Some major plot holes that left us yearning for a fourth season, but also some “imperfect justice.” The series’ ambiguous final moments leave some things up to viewer interpretation, and as two culture critics, we often find that that’s where the real fun begins. (Plus, that “Toxic” needle drop was simply perfection.)We also traveled back in time to the glory days of “ANTM,” via Netflix’s new documentary, “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.” The three part docu-series, which features interviews with Tyra Banks, Ken Mok, Jay Manuel, Nigel Barker and Miss J. Alexander, as well as prominent former contestants like Shandi Sullivan, Danielle Evans, Whitney Thompson, Keenyah Hill, attempts to grapple with the dark and complex legacy of the reality juggernaut. And boy is there a lot of darkness to sort through. “Reality Check” attempts to contextualize “ANTM” within the racist, homophobic, fatphobic time period it emerged during, and the even more racist, homophobic, fatphobic industry that it was attempting to broaden. But what becomes clear is that whatever lofty goals Banks had when she created “ANTM,” were overshadowed by the utter lack of protections in place for the cast members — who were predominantly vulnerable, very young women. Not only were the aspiring models cast subjected to microaggressions — Ebony Haith, a Black cast member from Cycle 1, has her hair texture mocked by white stylists during makeover day; Thompson, who won Cycle 10, shows up to castings where they’ve refused to pull clothes in her size — but also to physical dangers. (Sullivan’s story of being sexually assaulted on camera in Milan during Cycle 2, and then being framed as a cheating harlot on national television, is particularly harrowing.) And unfortunately, the decision makers interviewed still seem unwilling to take full accountability. In this episode of the Rich Text podcast, we get into it all, from our own experiences watching “ANTM” as teenagers, to the lingering questions “Tell Me Lies” left us with. We hope you enjoy! Timestamps for easy listening:0:00 — The “Tell Me Lies” series finale43:12 — The twisted legacy of “America’s Next Top Model”Share Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

A decade or so ago, it seemed like the coolest kind of mom to be was a bad one. They blew off PTA meetings, were fueled by rosé, and wrote irreverent blogs about their children’s tantrums and diaper blowouts. They rejected the sentimentalized idea of motherhood as a sacred calling in service of which a woman must relinquish her independence, her sexuality, her anger, her very identity. Smash cut to 2026, and the mothers of America seem to be locked in a constant, frenzied battle about who can gently, authoritatively, attachedly, and and intensively parent the best. The government lionizes white, conservative mothers who bear large broods, while separating immigrant mothers from their children and smearing liberal women who oppose the administration as “gangs of wine moms.” The labels of “good mom” and “bad mom” seem more oppressive than ever. How did we get here?In journalist Ej Dickson’s new book “One Bad Mother: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate,” she unravels the trope of the bad mother, from its origins as a tool in upholding white supremacy to its proliferation into a host of bad mom archetypes we now encounter every day. Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about these labels — how they are used to determine which women in our society deserve support, grace, freedom, and even life. So we were delighted to get to chat with Dickson about her entertaining and enraging book, which explores the idea of the bad mom largely through reconsiderations of cultural figures (Stifler’s mom, Mommie Dearest, Mama Rose). We also talked about some of the good/bad mom types that are on our minds the most lately, like gentle moms and MAHA moms. Toward the end of our conversation, Dickson brought up the short-lived aughts reclamation of the “bad mom” label. Why did it end? Should we bring it back? Or is there another path to escaping the tyranny of the bad mom label? We may not have the answers, but we gave it a shot! We hope you enjoy this conversation, and if you do, we recommend checking out “One Bad Mother” — we didn’t have time to even scratch the surface of this fantastic book. Subscribe nowShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

The central theme of this season of Netflix romance series “Bridgerton” comes into sharp focus at the end of the first episode. After charming rakish second son Benedict Bridgerton at his mother’s masquerade ball with her witty banter and sense of wonder, our masked heroine rushes home. We see her remove her formal glove, shoes and mask. Suddenly, she is staring into the humble mirror in her bedchamber, her full face in view for the first time. And instead of finery, she is dressed in a maid’s outfit. The major roadblock to a relationship between Sophie Baek and Benedict Bridgerton will not be a misunderstanding or a clash of personalities or a one-sided desire to end a bloodline. Instead, it will be something quite tangible, especially during the Regency era. It will be about class.It’s a fascinating moment for this season to hit our screens. On the one hand, as many viewers have noted, the uneven power dynamics of a Cinderella-inspired story — as this one definitively is — feel less fun to explore in fiction when we’re seeing the very real rollbacks of the rights of women in this country. (Part of why “Heated Rivalry” felt like such a salve to so many women viewers.) On the other hand, it’s clear that the writers injected some real class consciousness and modern labor politics into the text of the show. And that revamped text feels quite timely. (See: Mrs. Varley telling Lady Featherington off for using the language of “family” as a way to underpay her for two decades.) In this episode, we get into it all: the class dynamics, the power of AAPI representation, the ways in which the Cinderella tropes work and don’t, the many ancillary B-plots, and the pointed ways that the writers changed the plot of the show from its source material. Hope you enjoy! XoShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

This week, we’re diving into two topics that, somehow, both involve evil Stephens who want women to have their babies for nefarious reasons: the recent wave of high-profile, propagandistic pregnancy announcements in the Trump White House, and the current season of the dark teen soap “Tell Me Lies.” First, we get into the MAGA baby boom. Over the past month, three prominent Trump administration officials — Vice President J.D. Vance, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and Chief Architect of Evil Stephen Miller — have announced that they are expecting babies. For Vance and Miller, these will be their fourth children; Leavitt, who is just 28, is expecting her second. Having a baby shouldn’t be a political act, nor should it be right- or left-coded. But it’s clear from how these officials, and the White House, have framed these announcements that a mini baby boom within their ranks is doing valuable political work for them: it’s not only a sweet and fuzzy distraction from the violence being wreaked on American communities by ICE, but an advertisement for their so-called “pro-family” policies. We also unpack the telling language used by the Vances and Leavitt to discuss their pregnancies, how these ideologically tinged announcements work to brand motherhood as inherently conservative, and how the right’s pronatalism and anti-child policies devalue the lives of actual kids.Next, we catch up on the first few episodes of “Tell Me Lies,” season 3, which finds our flawed heroine Lucy still emotionally entangled with her controlling and toxic ex-boyfriend, Stephen. We discuss the major narrative developments so far this season, including a reshuffling of the romantic deck that we didn’t see coming. We also try to figure out why this season feels like it’s really driving discourse; perhaps in part because its feminist lens on male toxicity and emotional abuse is more striking as the story continues unfurling and Lucy still can’t free herself from Stephen’s orbit of control.Meanwhile, Meaghan Oppenheimer, the show’s creator, has spoken in interviews about how critical the show’s audience is of Lucy’s bad behavior; the torment she endures this season, Oppenheimer says, is the punishment fans have been asking for. “I was posing a question to them with this season: are you happy now?" We unpack how the show and the discourse around it illustrate the reactionary desire to find female blame in a story of male abuse. We also discuss how the show’s 2008-2015 setting offers a bit of nostalgia for the Obama years, when we were still blissfully ignorant of the descent into fascism that lay ahead of us. Maybe flat irons and side parts will always make us think of simpler times. Timestamps for easy listening:0:00 — The spate of pregnancy announcements from Trump’s White House44:00 — Why season 3 of “Tell Me Lies” is hittingShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

On this week’s episode of the Rich Text podcast, we’re tackling two totally disparate topics: the rage-fueled war on liberal white women and the end of “Love Is Blind Germany” season 2. Because, as we alway say… women contain multitudes.First, we dive into the right-wing ire being directed at white women who are choosing to mobilize against ICE. In the wake of Renee Good’s Jan. 7 killing in Minneapolis, right-wing media has found a new target for its hate-filled rhetoric: middle-class wine moms! Fox News commentator David Marcus warned that we are “seeing across the country as organized gangs of wine moms use Antifa tactics to harass and impede Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.” Some on the right are even deploying a fun new acronym: AWFULs (Affluent White Female Urban Liberals), a group which morning radio host Pierce Outlaw labeled “the scourge of polite society.”Much ink has been spilled over the years about the ways in which white women as a voting bloc often prioritize access to patriarchal and white supremacist power structures over gender solidarity. During the 2024 presidential election, exit polls showed that 53 percent of white women voted for Trump, and the majority of white women have broken for the right in nearly every presidential election since 1952. So what’s going on here?Turns out, it’s a few things. (1) As a bloc that the right has invested heavily in wooing — see: the MAHA movement, tradwife content, Erika Kirk — white women who become part of the resistance are the ultimate traitors. As Michelle Goldberg wrote in her NYTimes piece on this subject: “In the right-wing imagination, these women are acting like harpies — an epithet often seen online — when they’re supposed to be helpmeets.” (2) The right sees these increasingly politically mobilized women as a threat to their fascist project — in part because of their numbers and in part because of their privileged place in society. And (3) There is a need to cleave these women from their white privilege in the public sphere in order to neutralize their power as part of the resistance. Hence, wine moms and childless cat ladies become Antifa domestic terrorists.After this conversation, we do an abrupt tonal change and get into the final two episodes of “Love Is Blind Germany” season 2. We discuss which of our three final couples tied the knot, and whether any of them are still married a year later. Plus, one cast member makes an announcement during the reunion that’s a “Love Is Blind” historic first. Timestamps for easy listening:0:00 — Why the right is so furious at liberal white ladies44:20 — “Love Is Blind Germany” weddings episode and reunionReading materials referenced in the episode:“After Renee Good Killing, Derisive Term for White Women Spreads on the Far Right,” Clyde McGrady, NYTimes“The Right Is Furious With Liberal White Women,” Michelle Goldberg, NYTimes“Wine Moms Gone Wild,” Erin Gloria Ryan, Just Enjoy It While You Can“After Renee Good’s Murder, Wine-Mom Gangs Are Now the New Antifa,” Virginia Heffernan, The New Republic“white woman is the white woman of the world,” B.D. McClay, NotebookShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

You know we had to come back and finish discussing the first drop from “Love Is Blind Germany” season 2, and we are doing that today! But first, we needed to unburden ourselves about a couple other Cultural Conversations: the Golden Globe Awards adding a Best Podcast award, and Ashley Tisdale French’s essay in The Cut about leaving her toxic mom group. First, we get into the momentous decision of the Golden Globes to finally recognize all the valuable podcasting work being done by celebrities. We get into our feelings about celebrity podcasts in general (with all due respect to our queen Amy Poehler), the swamping of the industry by big-money deals for big-name movie stars, and the Golden Globes’ approach to recognizing this entire diverse genre of art and journalism.Next, we turn to actress and businesswoman Ashley Tisdale French’s underbaked but provocative essay in The Cut about how her mom group turned toxic — and how she bravely chose to leave. We break down the speculation that followed about the mom group, which was instantly identified as likely being Hilary Duff and Mandy Moore’s well-publicized crew of celeb and celeb-adjacent moms. The speculation was followed by a denial from French’s camp that the piece was about Duff’s group, but also tacitly confirmed by the prickly reactions from the direction of that particular social circle. Duff’s husband Matthew Koma posted a parody of French’s Cut portrait and headline strongly implying that she was squeezed out of the group for being self-involved and tone-deaf! Meghan Trainor posted an “I’m so unbothered” TikTok about the gossip! We discuss the essay’s weaknesses, why it seems to have backfired on French to some degree, and why we’re so fascinated by the idea of “mean” or “toxic” moms. Finally, we run through the major plot points of “Love Is Blind Germany” episodes 5-8, which take our newly engaged couples from honeymoons in Crete to daily life together in Munich, culminating in the beginning of their weddings. There are a couple of relationship casualties on the way, and cracks begin to form in some of the stronger couples. But there’s one real exception: Josy and Gunnar seem to go from strength to strength, slowly blossoming in each stage of the experiment. They remain our sweethearts, our favorites, our babygirls. Don’t fail us; we need this right now. Timestamps for easy listening:0:00 — A rant about the Golden Globes podcast category14:06 — Ashley Tisdale French toxic mom group drama 47:19 — “Love Is Blind Germany” eps 5-8Share Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

We have long been fans of the Emily Henry romance-novel universe. So when we heard that “People We Meet On Vacation” would be getting the movie treatment, we were unquestionably excited. “People We Meet On Vacation,” which was published in novel form in 2021 and dropped on Netflix in movie form on Jan. 9, follows polar opposite best friends Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth), who after meeting in a gender-swapped “When Harry Met Sally” post-college road trip, decide to go on vacation together every summer… platonically, of course. Poppy is quirky and chaotic and wanderlust-y — a classic free-spirited gal. Alex, on the other hand, loves structure and steadiness and home. But when he goes on vacation with Poppy, his more adventurous side awakens. The book, which we unfortunately did not have time to re-read before recording this podcast, is a delight. The movie… is fine? Like most rom-coms that make it to Netflix or commensurate streaming platforms, “People We Meet On Vacation” is watchable and cute. But when it comes to the things that differentiate a rom-com you watch once and a rom-com that burrows into your soul — distinctive and dense dialogue, truly funny comedy, a story that makes you really feel something — the adaptation falters. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what’s missing. Perhaps it’s the fact that the interiority of a character in a novel is simply tough to translate into movie form. Perhaps the story’s non-linear structure would have been better served with a mini-series. Perhaps it’s that Bader’s Poppy is a little too much of a caricature, and Blyth’s Alex is a little too flat. (These deficiencies are particularly notable when we meet Poppy’s parents, played by Alan Ruck and Molly Shannon, who pop more in their one scene than most of the other characters do in the entire film.) Perhaps the screenplay packs too much plot in without enough room to let us see why these two unlikely friends are so ultimately right for each other.Whatever it is, “People We Meet On Vacation” left us wanting more — even as we found a few moments of true enjoyment. This rom-com ultimately felt neither like a true escape from real life nor a reflection of it. Share Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

In 2026, the sun never sets on the “Love Is Blind” empire. With two US seasons a year, plus endlessly proliferating international spinoffs, there’s a new set of pod daters clamoring for our attention every time the last reunion has begun to fade from memory. And this month, we’re headed to Deutschland! “Love Is Blind Germany” season 2 has landed, and if you watched any of the first season (which Claire accidentally did, assuming, in a post-holiday fog, that she was viewing screeners for the new drop), you’ll quickly see that this edition has leveled up. The characters are popping, the love geometry is mathing, and one man takes it upon himself to innovate a dastardly new form of pod dumping. Let this be a lesson to us all: Never trust a tall 42-year-old with a stacked roster.The first drop was a staggering 8 episodes, so we took it upon ourselves to break it into two manageable halves. This week, we’re discussing the first four, which carry us through the drama-packed pod dating and into the beginning of the couples’ dreamy honeymoon in Crete. We get to know the new daters, form some snap judgments, and discuss the ongoing tyranny of gender role discourse in contemporary dating shows. And of course, we have many, MANY words for the audacity of Andi. Next week, we’ll be back to break down episodes 5-8 — and in the meantime, we have a pod coming soon with our thoughts on the Netflix adaptation of Emily Henry’s rom-com “People We Meet On Vacation.”Share Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

2025 felt more like a lifetime than a year. Personally and globally, a lot happened in the last 12 months — much of it filled with darkness and despair, but also punctuated by bits of joy and light. To round out 2025 and welcome in 2026, we decided to sit down and tape a bit of a reflection. We discussed our highlights (Emma’s wedding! Claire’s home purchase!), the lowlights (everything that the current administration is doing to our nation and the world), and our hopes and dreams for the year to come. Thank you for being a part of this community of ours — one of the bits of light in the darkness. We are so grateful for you. Cheers to a 2026 we can all be proud of. Share Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

When I got screener access to the season finale of “Heated Rivalry,” aptly titled “The Cottage,” I knew that the holiday break simply couldn’t stand in the way of a conversation about the back half of the super-gay hockey show that has become a solid 75 percent of my personality. Unfortunately, Claire had to do things, like… spend time with family… and her children… and celebrate Christmas (fine, fine, fine), but as a Jew who found herself with some free time on her hands while in South Florida this week, duty called. Luckily, pop culture commentator Josh the RHONY Stan was game to watch the finale of the little Canadian show that has taken two nations by storm and hop on to chat all about it with me. We got into the overarching plot points of episodes 3-6, and then zoomed out to talk about the heated discourse that has surrounded “Heated Rivalry.” We laughed, we swooned, and we shared our hopes and dreams for the show’s second season. Hope you enjoy! (And please forgive any slight audio quality issues. I was recording this from the floor of a bedroom in my mother-in-law’s Boca Raton home. We all do our best over Christmastime.) Related Reading:“Down to Puck: Why Women Are Going Wild for ‘Heated Rivalry,’” Seth Abramovitch, The Hollywood Reporter“Heated Rivalry Scores Big, With Hockey and Sex,” Erik Piepenburg, New York Times“Heated Rivalry’s Elder Statesman,” Jason P. Frank, VultureShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

Happy holidays, y’all! Here are the presents you didn’t ask for: two staggeringly bad seasons of scripted TV. First, “Emily in Paris” is back, and this time she’s Emily in Rome, Emily Back in Paris, Emily in an American Embassy, Emily in Venice, and Emily Back in Paris Forever This Time. Emily is madly in love with Marcello — her new Handsome Boyfriend, Italian Edition — but Emily also misses her family of origin, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Pop-Tarts. Emily and her glamorous French mentor, Sylvie, are kissing their way across Europe, too boy-crazy to notice that Agence Grateau is on life support. Mindy is singing in every episode, sometimes in a giant martini glass. Alfie is just there to be toyed with by beautiful women, and Gabriel lives on a yacht now. Somehow, this is still not the last season of “Emily in Paris.” Send this girl back to the greater Chicago area already!Next, the so-bad-it-must-be-camp Hulu drama “All’s Fair” has crash-landed into its season finale. (Don’t worry: season 2 is coming.) Allura is in divorce mediation with her sociopathic sex-addict NFL-star husband, during which he suddenly falls madly in love with her again and begs her to start over. Immediately afterward, he begins fucking her nemesis. Carrington Lane commits a series of ethical and conduct violations so profound that disbarment seems like the only reasonable consequence, but instead her long-time enemies begin to court her as a possible partner for their lady lawyer firm. Liberty becomes insecure that her best friends are judging her for being a posh blonde Brit who eats scones. And the law firm’s matriarch, Dina, is arrested for the murder of Emerald’s assailant — was she framed?? These two shows each offer us a heightened reality — one bubblegum Technicolor, the other raunchy and lurid — that, despite their differences in aesthetic and tone, both bend towards a nightmarish sense of wrongness. We discuss all the problems, and all the unhinged details we could remember, in this two-part episode. Hope you enjoy! xoTimestamps for easy listening:0:00 — “Emily in Paris,” season 51:04:08 — “All’s Fair,” end of season 1Share Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

On this week’s Rich Text podcast, we’re talking about a spicy new television show, and a “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” reunion special that dangled the possibility of spice and instead fed us white bread. First, we get into “Heated Rivalry,” a Canadian sports romance show that has broken out into the mainstream since it’s first two episodes dropped (on HBO Max for U.S. viewers) on Nov. 28. The show, created for Crave by actor/writer/producer/director Jacob Tierney, is based on the second novel in romance writer Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novel series. “Heated Rivalry” follows two rising hockey stars of Major League Hockey (a fictionalized NHL): Canadian Shane Hollander, who plays for the Montreal Metros, and Russian Ilya Rozanov, who plays for the Boston Raiders. They meet during their rookie years, and the tension is basically immediately palpable. They quickly end up developing a very public heated rivalry (see what we did there?), while entering into a private situationship that spans years.In this episode, we get into why “Heated Rivalry” has broken through into the cultural conversation so quickly, the insane chemistry between the lead actors, whether it matters that this queer romance was written by a woman in a genre largely consumed by straight women, and why more romance shows should take the genre as seriously as Tierney clearly did.Then we move on to the much-anticipated, but deeply disappointing, season 3 reunion of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.” As fans of the show who have been breathlessly following the adventures of MomTok both on-screen and off, we had high hopes. But unfortunately, this reunion special offered a lot of throat-clearing and very little that actually cleared much of anything up.The hour-long special, hosted by Stassi Schroeder, gave us… nothing? We were left with multiple frustrating back-and-forths that only ended when Stassi stepped in — not to ask a follow-up question, but to simply move right along to the next segment. It left us wondering who is to blame here: The filming schedule? The fact that the cast is holding back for Season 4? The host? The editing? All of the above?Before we wrapped up, we also got into some of the far-more-interesting off-screen “SLOMW” news, including the big Fruity Pebbles reveal, and Jessi and Jordan’s dual Viall Files appearances.Timestamps for easy listening:0:00 — “Heated Rivalry”50:06 — “SLOMW” S3 Reunion1:16:45 — “SLOMW” non-reunion gossipHope you enjoy! xoShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

It was a big week for vampy girlbosses with flawless blowouts and questionable politics. Olivia Nuzzi, the wunderkind politics reporter who left NYMag in disgrace when her digital affair with her source and then-presidential candidate RFK Jr. became public, has returned with not only a plum gig at Vanity Fair but a splashy memoir that seems to position her ethical lapse as a romantic tragedy. Meanwhile, her problematic ex Ryan Lizza, who left his own prestige media job in disgrace after being accused of sexual misconduct, has begun dropping Substack missives accusing Nuzzi of more and more lapses: another affair in 2020 with another source and then-presidential candidate, Mark Sanford; writing strategy memos and doing catch-and-kills for RFK Jr. while still covering the race as a reporter. (We recorded this episode before his second installment dropped on Friday night.) We discuss the framing of Nuzzi’s comeback tour, the purple prose and the emptiness behind it, the media rot that enabled it, and the grotesque parade of older, powerful men (very much including Lizza) who have participated in her rise and fall.Next, we dug into season 4 of “Selling the O.C.” After season 3 ended in complete chaos, it’s unsurprising that the cast has been completely overhauled — but it is surprising, and disappointing, that the show has been almost completely whitewashed in the process. Yes, Alexandras Rose and Jarvis, classic MAGA Barbies, are gone, but they’re not the only ones. Every cast member of color was either ousted or reduced to occasional cameos. And to replace them? A host of new white women from the San Diego office. We discuss the new additions — Ashtyn the pregnant pot-stirrer, Fiona the Alex Hall acolyte, and Kaylee the raver chick — and break down the major points in this season’s drama. We also discuss the MAGA drift in the “Selling” franchise, the return of a much weepier Tyler Stanaland, and the persistent unlikability of the show’s central protagonist, Alex Hall.Finally, we get into the hit Hulu drama “All’s Fair,” which stars Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, and Glenn Close as feminist divorce lawyers serving the fairer half of the uber-wealthy, alongside a crack investigator played by Niecy Nash-Betts. The show had been panned so roundly that we couldn’t resist taking a peek. And yes: it is that bad. It’s so bad that, while watching, we felt unmoored from reality. The pacing is off-kilter, the dialogue is flat and stilted, the plot is unhinged and leans too hard on half-baked feminist politics, the lighting and visuals are harsh and ominous, and the acting is so wooden that it’s hard not to root for the one person really going for it in her performance: Sarah Paulson as the villain, a female misogynist divorce lawyer whose sole objective is to destroy the show’s heroines. We talk about all of the above, as well as the show’s obsession with wealth and conspicuous consumption — including the consumption of expensive beauty procedures.Timestamps for easy listening: 0:00 — The Nuzzi drama 51:06 — “Selling the O.C” 1:29:37— “All’s Fair” Hope you enjoy, and happy Thanksgiving! xoShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

As people who talk and write about reality television professionally, we know that being on a high-profile show can incentivize people to act in all sorts of ways. Everything is heightened, everyone has an agenda, and everything is — even when it’s very real and raw — in some part for TV. So when you combine that landscape with sexual assault allegations, things very quickly become very icky. In this episode, we’re tackling the back half of season 3 of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” episodes 6-10. (If you missed our earlier coverage, here it is!) And, unfortunately, much of this half of the season is spent parsing assault allegations made by Demi against “Vanderpump Villa’s” Marciano. We tried to approach this as sensitively and thoughtfully as possible, but, as always, please listen with care.But we promise this episode isn’t all doom and gloom! We also get to talk about Whitney’s rise from the social ashes, Stagecoach fuckery (if you’ve watched “Bachelor In Paradise,” you know that a Stagecoach hookup is never a good idea), and the final nail in the Taylor and Dakota relationship coffin. We hope you enjoy! (As much as possible, given the subject matter.)Share Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

Season 3 of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” is back, and it’s full of the juicy answers we’ve been waiting for: Did Jessi have an affair with slimy “Vanderpump Villa” star Marciano? Did Demi have an affair with slimy “Vanderpump Villa” star Marciano? Is Whitney still in MomTok? Did Jen and Zac Affleck fix their crumbling marriage? And what unspeakable thing finally blew up Taylor and Dakota’s on-again-off-again relationship? In this episode, we tackle the first half of the season, which mostly revolves around the first two questions. Marciano has become a de facto cast member, as his shifting accounts of his relationships with Jessi and Demi keep upending the narrative. But we finally do get some answers — with the help of a polygraph test that the women trust a little more than the science warrants. We also discuss the darker side of Jessi’s marriage to Jordan, the DadTok/MomTok rift, Whitney’s burning desire to audition for “Dancing With the Stars,” and so much more. We’ll be back soon to discuss the deeply upsetting second half of the season, but for now… we hope you enjoy! xo Share Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

For this week’s episode, we’re trying something a little different: a grab bag! We had three topics we wanted to cover — our reactions to this week’s elections, Lily Allen’s buzzy divorce album, and the deeply unpleasant “Selling Sunset” S9 reunion — so we chatted about all three. First: We all needed a shot in the arm, and the off-year election gave it to us good and hard. Tuesday’s elections were a Democratic rout, with candidates from 34-year-old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani to bland liberal Mikie Sherrill romping to victory with eye-popping margins. Abigail Spanberger won easily in the VA gubernatorial race, as did the rest of the Democratic ticket. But Dems also notched massive wins in state legislature races and in ballot measures, notably California’s Prop 50 (which backs Gavin Newsom’s retaliatory redistricting plan). They flipped two state utility board seats in Georgia and won a campaign to retain three Democratic state Supreme Court justices in Pennsylvania. Moms for Liberty candidates lost almost every contested school board race. We discuss the unfamiliar feeling of hope and the importance of channeling it into the fight ahead, as well as our (cautious) takeaways from how this election cycle played out.Second: Lily Allen’s “West End Girl” has dominated the cultural conversation since it hit the airwaves — and we, too, have been enjoying our sonic trip from the West End to the “Pussy Palace.” The raw and diaristic album tells the story, inspired by the breakdown of Allen’s marriage to David Harbour, of a woman whose husband asks for an open marriage while she’s across the ocean, performing in a play in London. While she’s wracked with jealousy and anxiety about their new arrangement, he bends and breaks their rules; the infidelity destroys her, though she tries to get her own back by also taking advantage of the open relationship. Ultimately, the marriage falls apart.The gruesome details, which Allen has coyly hinted may or may not be entirely factual, are delivered in candy-sweet melodies that only make her rage more pointed. We discuss our reactions to the music, the dark story it tells, Lily Allen as a public figure with a troubled history of her own, and the popularity of confessional pop music.Third: The “Selling Sunset” reunion made a dark season even darker. Nicole refused to properly apologize for bringing up Chrishell’s late parents. Chrishell revealed more about the offensive language she’d witnessed and experienced from Emma’s on-and-off manchild boyfriend Blake, but was dogpiled by the rest of the cast for failing to be sufficiently supportive of Emma. Mary offered a limited apology to Chelsea for overreacting to the flower arrangement Chelsea sent her, but the depth of the racist subtext to the interaction was never addressed. And with Chrishell and Chelsea seemingly isolated from the rest of the group, it’s impossible to ignore how undercurrents of bigotry have shaped the social dynamic of the office. Will this season be the last we watch? We discuss this, along with the ins and outs of the reunion.Hope you enjoy! xoShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription

Our favorite stiletto-wearing, drama-producing, luxury real estate agents are back, baby! Season 9 of “Selling Sunset” premiered on Netflix on Oct. 29., and it faces the difficult task of balancing petty grievances between modelesque agents at The Oppenheim Group with a genuine mass tragedy — the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires.The first few episodes of the season are a return to form. Nicole and Chrishell are feuding. Mary and Chelsea are feuding. Bre and Chelsea are feuding. And Emma’s dating a 27-year-old real estate heir who has NEVER EATEN A FRUIT OR VEGETABLE! There’s a lot of feuding! And a very alarming manchild!And then the wildfires break out, and the city of Los Angeles — and certainly the real estate industry — is thrown into crisis. “Selling Sunset” is more frothy intrigue than hard-hitting documentary, but the show does its best to thread the needle. Some of the most affecting scenes of the season are when we meet real women who had to flee their homes during the fires, and ended up losing everything.In this episode, we discuss the shifting dynamics of the office, the cracks that are beginning to show in the Chrishell-Emma best friendship, Mary’s unraveling, and Nicole’s last hurrah. Hope you enjoy! XoShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free