Alex Cooper, Please Interview One Black Girl

I tracked every guest Call Her Daddy had over the last 153 episodes and the results aren’t what I expected, they’re worse

I lean over the kitchen island to press play on the podcast episode I insisted my roommates had to hear, putting too much trust in the bar stool so worn down that I’m sitting on white stuffing where black leather was meant to be. It’s Fall 2018, and I managed to get half of them huddled around my phone, volume cranked.

Across from me, they shriek, half in horror, half in amusement, as two women with vocal fry so sharp it could splice atoms outdo each other with raunchy one-liners.

“What on earth is this?” asks the most demure of the three of us.

“Call Her Daddy! It’s a new relationship podcast, but honestly, I don’t know if you can even call it that,’ I reply.

Right on cue, one of the hosts deadpans, “Ladies, remember you’re just a hole.” My roommate shoots me a look of betrayal as she picks up her phone and walks out of the room without a word. I burst out laughing.

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I was there from the beginning. Before the Spotify deal. Before the rebrand. When Call Her Daddy was a messy and unhinged podcast on Barstool Sports. When there were two hosts, Alex Cooper and Sofia Franklyn, who were best friends… Well, before the messy break-up.

I was 23 when the show premiered. I rage quit my life in New York and moved to DC after I learned my boyfriend of two years cheated on me. The betrayal rippled through any ounce of trust I tried to muster in men.

Until then, all the relationship media I consumed were ways to fall in love with the ‘one’. Teen movies where the popular jock finally notices the nerdy girl after a makeover. YouTube videos teaching me how to flirt and “signs that he likes you.” Answering C enough times in teen magazines to convince me that I was going to have a summer romance at the beach even though I lived in a land-locked state.

But that was before the man I thought I’d marry blew off my best friend's birthday to hook up with the girl ‘I shouldn’t worry about’ in the back seat of her car.

In 2018, I was entering an era where I wasn’t looking for true love, but rather how to play the game to get what I want. My own misguided take on feminism.

Enter, Call Her Daddy.

I binged the first seven episodes in a week.

Call Her Daddy was the bible of modern dating. It didn’t try to fix you. It didn’t care if you were in therapy or drinking green juice. It let you spiral and told you it was empowering. That’s what made it addictive.

Since my time laughing with my friends at CHD in the kitchen, Alex Cooper has built an empire and broken records, culminating in her documentary, Call Her Alex, which premieres at Tribeca Film Festival on June 8th.

There was a time when I believed in the version of womanhood Call Her Daddy was selling, but now? I’m sick of Alex Cooper.

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If you don’t know her or the show, Cooper is the host of the most popular podcast in the world for women. She has penned one historic deal after another. Her latest being with Sirius XM for $125 million. The show evolved from the raunchy sex advice podcast into a respected interview platform, with A-list guests ranging from Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, and even former VP Kamala Harris.

But at some point, the guests started to feel like a similar loop. The same kind of woman, walking through the same kind of door.

Call Her Daddy, since its inception, was grounded in a misguided form of white feminism. Her brand was a smart, calculated response to the girlboss-ification of womanhood that peaked at her arrival. She predicted the shift in the market, one less about the woman who can do it all on her own, but the woman who can do it on her own terms. One that centered around men, valued (white) female friendship, and was created ultimately to fuel capitalism.

Through listening over the years, I realized when the show spoke about women, BIPOC women were quite literally being left out of the conversation. It was never the community I once thought I was part of. The podcast was a product built around algorithmically desired whiteness, wrapped in the language of sex positivity and confessional media. A capitalist fantasy of feminism, fine-tuned to the attention economy. The world Alex Cooper and the Unwell brand caters to is white, all-American, straight, and apolitical.

Because of this, my ‘Call Her Daddy White Lady’ tracker was born.

I spent [redacted] hours tracking every single one of Alex Cooper’s guests from January 3, 2024 through this week – and the numbers are bleak.

153 episodes. 164 guests.

68% of guests were white women. The second most interviewed demographic is white men.

Yes, there were more white men interviewed for a podcast centering women than Black women or POC women. Both these demographics represent only 8% of guests.

Black and POC men were interviewed in equal numbers, roughly 3% of all guests.

In 18 months, she had Black women on the show 15 times. Just 15 times in 153 episodes. Unreal.

I can’t even begin to talk about the colorism layered into all of this as well.

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I shared this analysis on TikTok. In response, a white woman user chastised me for ‘creating a division that wasn’t there’ and proceeded to list five Black celebs and mentioned the vague phrase of ‘several Asian celebrities’ as proof of representation.

When I see responses like that, all I hear is: ‘We included five. Isn’t that enough? Why do you want more?’

When one of the most powerful media spaces for women excludes women of color, it tells millions of listeners who matters, and who doesn’t. In no world does inclusion mean being able to count the number of non-white people interviewed on one hand. Not everything is for us, but not everything should be against us either.

I find it odd that there’s an episode featuring Aly & AJ—no shade, I love them—but they were peak famous in 2008. Meanwhile, there’s no sit-down with KeKe and SZA during their hit movie promo, no conversation with Doechii after her Grammy win. She platformed Rachael Kirkconnell after her breakup with Matt James, the first Black Bachelor, even after Rachael was canceled for attending a racist party in college. Still no interview with Serena and Kordell, the popular Black winners of Love Island USA season 7—but Rob, a white man from the same season, got an episode.

This isn’t just about numbers. It’s about positioning. Call Her Daddy has never been about women in any expansive or intersectional sense. It’s been about perfecting the shape of a certain kind of woman, then selling that shape back to us. If it looks liberated, even better. The fact that the show centers the same kind of guest over and over is not a glitch. It’s the model.

I know Alex is progressive. I respect that she platformed Kamala, even with the backlash. It seems like she’s trying, but how hard?

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Seven years later, a lot of things are different. I moved back to New York and now buy furniture meant to last. I fell in love again, then out again, but didn’t seek revenge for my heart break. Alex is no longer defined by her vulgar content, got married, and evolved to be one of the most coveted interviews in Hollywood. Yet the version of womanhood and empowerment she adheres to hasn’t changed.

There’s no escaping the media landscape we live in or the need for virality and large platforms to break through the noise. Because of that, it’s imperative to create lanes that enable diverse voices to enter spaces they otherwise would be shut out of. As history is being actively erased and narratives are being reshaped in real time, it’s urgent to include those voices in public spheres that aren’t targeted or actively censored. If she wants to show up for progressive women, it’s time to sit across from and platform all of us.

I wish diverse podcasts were garnering the same attention she does. I wish there were an alternative answer just as influential as the Call Her Daddy empire. Either it needs to be created, or we all need to invest deeper by tuning into those shows.

But until then: Alex Cooper, please interview more Black and POC girls.

Listen to more BIPOC women podcasts. I’ll admit that I don’t listen to a ton of podcasts, but here are a few I can recommend:

• She’s So Lucky by Les Alfred: This one’s all about self-improvement and finding your way in the world. I always leave the show feeling like I’ve just taken an everything shower, slipped into clean sheets, moisturized, and tucked in cozy.

• We’re You’re Girls with Taryn Delanie Smith & Tiffani Singleton: Two besties chatting on the couch with wine—what more could you want? Taryn and Tiffani are hilarious, relatable, and just so much fun to listen to.

• Networth and Chill by Vivian Chu: Vivian, a former Wall Street girlie and your go-to “rich BFF,” shares financial advice. I really appreciate the way she centers women in her money talk.

• Long Winded with Gabby Windey: Ok so I haven’t actually listened to this one—but everyone I know is trying to convert me into a Gabby stan. From the clips I have seen, she’s hilarious and her journey to where she is now has been wild.

Another way to take action: Share this newsletter with a friend, colleague, or anyone who you think might benefit from it. The conversation starts here, but it doesn’t have to end here.

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With love, Chanda