This podcast wants to be your new best friend
In a podcast landscape dominated by the manosphere, one of the biggest podcasts targeted to women sounds like it could be a children's television show.
Giggly Squad is hosted by two best friends, fashion influencer Paige DeSorbo and comedian Hannah Berner, who first rose to fame via the Bravo reality show Summer House. In 2020, the pair began doing weekly Instagram Lives and eventually launched the podcast.
Since then, Giggly Squad has become one of the top-ranking shows on Apple Podcasts, with 44 million downloads last year. DeSorbo and Berner just wrapped up a sold-out national tour and are now releasing their first book How to Giggle: A Guide to Taking Life Less Seriously; promotion for the book recently included a guest appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
In several ways, Giggly Squad feels like an obvious daughter of Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy. The show largely appeals to Gen Z white women. (Their fan base calls themselves the 'Gigglers.') It also has a similar conceit to the first iteration of Cooper's pod: Two girlfriends having honest, sometimes frivolous, conversations about dating, sex, mental health, and other aspects of their lives.
It resembles a casual text chain between two best friends. In a recent episode, DeSorbo updated listeners about her UTI while Berner joked about an intense bout of PMS. 'I like to let the Gigglers know where we are in our cycles,' Berner said.
Intimacy and kinship between hosts has become an expected feature of women-led podcasting nowadays, the best friend chat its own genre. It makes the audience, too, feel like one of the gang.
'It really just feels like you're FaceTiming your best friends,' says Alexa Toback, a self-proclaimed Giggler. 'You get a relationship that's so close to them. It's like a conversation you're having with your friends every week.'
The affinity fans feel speaks not only to the increasingly parasocial role that podcasts have taken in our lives post-pandemic, but the way female friendship has become a commercial enterprise.
How podcasts became our new BFFs
Casual gabfests between women aren't a new invention in the podcasting space. Some of the best examples have been organic endeavors by friends seeking a public outlet to discuss their personal lives and interests.
A popular product of the early podcast boom was the Call Your Girlfriend podcast, hosted by Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow. The two long-distance friends would catch each other up on their lives, while having insightful and informative conversations about culture, politics, and gender. My Favorite Murder, hosted by comedians Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff, saw two pals bonding over their interest in true-crime stories. The BuzzFeed-then-Slate podcast Thirst Aid Kit saw hosts Bim Adewunmi and Nichole Perkins verbally salivating over their latest celebrity crushes.
These older examples are a bit more produced and polished than the off-the-cuff, hyperpersonal vibe of Giggly Squad. However, podcasts like DeSorbo and Berner's feel like a natural progression of this setup. This 'group chat' phenomenon has proliferated the podcasting world recently, with shows like Lemme Say This, hosted by college best friends Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix, and The Ringer's Jam Session, hosted by work pals Amanda Dobbins and Juliet Litman. The genre's growth is particularly visible on social media. TikTok and Instagram Reels are rife with clips of two women sitting in a pink or beige studio and, in TikTok terms, having a yap about seemingly inconsequential matters.
Naturally, this chummy dynamic is also found in popular podcasts hosted by sisters, what you might consider a subgenre of the best friend pod. There's the pop culture show The Toast, hosted by controversial sibling duo Jackie and Claudia Oshry, that has managed to become a mainstream hit. Olympic rugby player Ilona Maher's newly launched podcast, House of Maher, featuring her sisters Adrianna and Olivia, is described as an audio version of their sibling group chat. It's already performing well on the Apple Podcasts charts.
The hit Netflix series Nobody Wants This brought new attention to The World's First Podcast, hosted by the show's creator Erin Foster and her sister Sara. The Netflix show portrayed a fictional version of the podcast, with Kristen Bell standing in for Foster.
Kristen Bell and Justine Lupe in the Netflix series Nobody Wants This. Netflix
'Does this format feel more abundant in the culture?' says Vulture's podcast critic Nicholas Quah. 'The answer is yes, and that's tied to the fact that podcasting has become normalized. It's become part of everybody's media diet.'
Quah adds that these loosely structured, largely unscripted podcasts are everywhere because they're simple to make: 'The economic structure of podcasting is to privilege shows like these that are very cheap, easy to record, and efficient.'
The barrier for entry is low — they don't require journalistic skills or expertise on a certain subject. Instead, the prerequisite is friend chemistry and a sense of relatability. Over time, listeners gain knowledge of the hosts' history with one another, interests, pet peeves, and other minutiae. By listening to Lemme Say This, for example, audiences get to know about Harris and Dix's core college memories, past relationships, and parental quirks.
While 'podcast bros' aim for self-improvement, podcast girlies are embracing gossip and mess
The parasocial effect that comes from watching women relate to each other may feel particularly familiar to fans of reality shows — another extremely character-driven format that gives audiences an unnatural amount of personal knowledge about people they've never met. Perhaps it's not surprising then that podcasts like Giggly Squad have become a natural extension of branding for reality stars themselves. You can expect almost every Real Housewife nowadays, including notable duos, to launch their own podcasts based on their already-established personalities and friend dynamics.
These podcasts inevitably start to mimic reality TV, in providing both mindless entertainment and a deeply engaging connection to the talent.
By design, the hosts create their own share of extracurricular gossip for listeners to converse about. When Litman announced her pregnancy on Jam Session a few weeks ago, fans ran to the NYCInfluenerSnark subreddit to share their excitement and curiosity about the news and also mused about what the show would look like when she took maternity leave. When DeSorbo disclosed on Giggly Squad that she was having panic attacks, fans on Reddit immediately tried to investigate the cause.
Related Deuxmoi and the ethics of banal celebrity gossip
Giggly Squad has the added benefit — and pressure — of the friends' very public off-air personas; the show is a place where they can discuss the news moments created outside of the podcast too. When tabloids reported that DeSorbo had split from her partner of three years, Southern Charm star Craig Conover, last December, fans knew they could tune into Giggly Squad for the inside scoop. The same feedback loop occurred last month when Berner received backlash for comments she made during an interview with Megan Thee Stallion at the Vanity Fair Oscars party. Listeners anticipated the next episode, where Berner addressed the viral incident.
Quah says that 'embracing a sense of mess and scandal' has become central to how younger women are building their brands through podcasts.
The way these shows embrace gossip and intimate conversation can easily be written off as a cheap tactic for attracting listeners. However, it's not a coincidence that these podcasts have become, as Quah puts it, 'sites of female empowerment,' forums for women to have the raw, unfiltered conversations where they feel heard and understood. It's a notable distinction from the world of 'podcast bros,' like Joe Rogan and Andrew Huberman, speaking to wonky self-help experts and promoting an individualist lifestyle of self-improvement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Verge
an hour ago
- The Verge
A-lister antics and Schedule A shenanigans
Summer blockbusters like the new Superman and Jurassic World movies may be doing great at the box office, but promoting them is more complicated than ever. The old celebrity playbook of magazine profiles, TV chat shows, and press junkets isn't enough in an era of audience fragmentation. Publicists now have to strategize which podcasts to make time for, and whether their clients will eat chicken on YouTube with Amelia Dimoldenberg or Sean Evans. This week on The Vergecast, guest host Mia Sato talks to Vulture's Fran Hoepfner to break down the ever-changing new media circuit, whether you're a beloved A-lister, a formerly beloved A-lister, or an aspiring Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Pocket Casts | More Then, we take a deep dive with Sarah Fackrell into a controversial legal tactic brands are using to go after online sellers hawking everything from Grumpy Cat T-shirts to closet hooks. Finally, Victoria Song joins Mia to answer a Vergecast hotline from a listener wondering whether an AI translator will be able to keep up with his partner's Colombian mother. If you've got a question for us, call 866-VERGE11 or e-mail vergecast@ Want to learn more about what we talk about today? Here are some links to get you started:
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
As Theo Huxtable in 'The Cosby Show,' Malcolm-Jamal Warner was integral to 'America's family'
When Bill Cosby revolutionized television during the mid-1980s with "The Cosby Show," the fictional Huxtables, the wealthy Black family at the center of the sitcom, were often referred to as "America's family," and riding the wave of that pop culture phenomenon was Malcolm-Jamal Warner. The actor, who died Sunday at 54 in Costa Rica, charmed viewers of the NBC sitcom with his portrayal of Theodore "Theo" Huxtable, the middle child and only son of Cosby's Cliff Huxtable. Theo was based on Bill Cosby's son, Ennis William Cosby, who was a constant source of material in his comedy routines and the inspiration for many of the storylines involving Theo on the show. (And like Theo, Ennis, who died in 1997, was Cosby's only son.) The series would be the most notable highlight of his career, earning him an Emmy nomination in 1986 for supporting comedy actor. After "The Cosby Show," Warner continued to work on various television series, including "The Resident" and "9-1-1." He also dabbled in music and hosted a podcast exploring positives in Black culture titled "Not All Hood." Read more: Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who became America's son Theo Huxtable on 'The Cosby Show,' dies at 54 But none of those endeavors matched the success of his "Cosby Show" profile. The Huxtable children, played by Warner, Sabrina LeBeauf, Lisa Bonet, Tempestt Bledsoe and Keshia Knight Pulliam, were a key element of the series. As played by Warner, Theo was an engaging, fun-loving teen who also got into a variety of scrapes in the Huxtable household. He also struggled as a student. And while he would often frustrate his parents, the affection they had for him was palpable. The Huxtables were a family bonded by humor and love, as Dr. Huxtable and his wife, Clair (Phylicia Rashad), a lawyer, counseled their children how to be better people. Their interactions attracted millions of viewers each week. In a 1992 New York Times interview, Cosby spoke of Ennis' problems at school: "It bothered me that Ennis was not doing his schoolwork. I sat him down and said, 'We're going to talk, and I want you to say whatever is on your mind.'" The dialogue became the basis for an episode in which Theo comes home with lackluster grades, explaining to his father that he was overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed. Cosby's family later learned when Ennis graduated from college that he was dyslexic. The discovery inspired the final episode of the series, in which Theo overcomes dyslexia and graduates from college. (Cliff Huxtable can't get enough seats for the graduation ceremony.) Read more: A Classy Farewell: Hour Finale of 'Cosby Show' Ends Run of Beloved Series When "The Cosby Show" ended in 1992, some of the actors playing the Huxtable children had varying degrees of success. Bonet starred for one season on the "Cosby Show" spinoff, "A Different World," and co-starred in the film "Angel Heart." Bledsoe hosted a daytime talk show. Pulliam currently co-stars on "Tyler Perry's House of Payne." Warner continued to work, finding some steady roles and making guest appearances on various shows over the course of his career. He starred in 1992's 'Here and Now' on NBC as a psychology graduate student who helps run an inner-city Manhattan youth center. The comedy was canceled after one season. His most successful venture was "Malcolm & Eddie," which featured him and comedian Eddie Griffin as bar owners. That UPN comedy ended in 2000 after four seasons. One of his last leading roles was in BET's short-lived 2011 comedy "Reed Between the Lines," in which he played an English teacher married to a psychologist (Tracee Ellis Ross). Warner said in a Times interview that the show reflected his desire to continue the positive family values at the core of "The Cosby Show." 'We were clear that there had not been a show like 'Cosby' since 'Cosby,'' Warner said. 'We are in no way looking to re-create that show, but we did want to re-create that universality and positive family values that 'Cosby' represented. Neither Tracee or I were interested in a 'black show.' We are telling family stories as opposed to black stories.' Sign up for Screen Gab, a free newsletter about the TV and movies everyone's talking about from the L.A. Times. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
Atlantic
an hour ago
- Atlantic
A Lonely Portrait of Lifelong Friendship
The English novelist E. M. Forster believed that people know the characters in the novels they read better than they know one another. In fiction, he argued, a character's true nature and deepest secrets are plainly available, whereas 'mutual secrecy' is 'one of the conditions of life upon this globe.' This idea is strikingly isolating. Can it possibly be true? By the end of Stephanie Wambugu's debut novel, Lonely Crowds, I could see where Forster was coming from. Following the decades-long convolutions of an intense and volatile friendship between two women, Ruth and Maria, Lonely Crowds poses similar questions about the limits of personal relationships. As the girls grow older and their unhealthy childhood patterns repeat in adulthood, their friendship begins to seem more dangerous than idyllic. Perhaps the most prevailing myth about childhood friends is that they know each other completely and love each other best. Wambugu counters such sentimentalism by revealing the many secrets and misunderstandings at the core of Ruth and Maria's friendship. In their world, a lifelong bond is not a comfort but a liability. Lonely Crowds begins in the contemporary present with Ruth, as an adult, seeming very lost at her own birthday party. As the novel's title suggests, a crowd full of people can be a remarkably lonely place. 'That Maria wasn't here at the party was a source of great distress,' Ruth thinks, blowing out the candles. Ruth recalls that when she met Maria years ago, 'I learned that without an obsession life was impossible to live. I'd forgotten. Now, I remembered.' Despite her success as an art professor and painter, Ruth feels adrift and bitter. She thinks she sees Maria everywhere. As she falls asleep the night after her party, she recollects her history with Maria, starting from the beginning. Ruth's obsession with Maria sparks from their first encounter, in a uniform shop for the Catholic school where they will soon be classmates. The scene is a small spectacle of shame: Ruth watches while Maria's aunt tries to buy a uniform for Maria on layaway, promising to pay when her disability check comes through. The owner refuses and castigates Maria's aunt in front of a long line of customers, throwing the two of them out of the store. As they leave, Ruth makes eye contact, and Maria 'looked back at me as she crossed the threshold, wide black eyes, perfect. Then she was gone. I felt doomed.' Ruth decides she will befriend the girl at her new school and spends the rest of the summer besotted with the idea. Maria and Ruth meet again on the first day of third grade at Our Lady in Providence, Rhode Island, where the two are the only Black girls in their class. They're the same age, but to Ruth, Maria seems much older and wiser. During their first real conversation at school, Maria brags about her pearl earrings, a gift from a teacher, offering to let Ruth borrow them if she's careful. 'Oh, I'm not careful,' Ruth responds. 'I'm careless.' Her utterly honest response demonstrates Wambugu's knack for capturing the humor of childish intransigence on the page. But the scene also looms large for young Ruth: Maria's earrings represent the mysterious world of adults, one that Ruth is hungry to learn more about. That the gift is inappropriate simply does not register for her. Ruth is an only child, sheltered by her parents, who are Kenyan immigrants to a working-class neighborhood in Pawtucket, outside of Providence. Her mother values hard work and minding one's own business, while her father is 'lonely, mercurial, romantic,' often changing jobs and exacerbating marital tensions. Ruth's upbringing is strict but stable. Maria lives with her aunt, who is severely bipolar, after her mother's death by suicide. The girls' first playdate sets the stage for the uneven dynamic they'll share for the rest of their friendship. After inviting Maria home from school with her, Ruth reminds herself to 'come across as measured, impassive, and confident.' By the end of supper, Maria's politeness and intelligence have charmed Ruth's parents. But the success of the evening is punctured when Maria, as she is leaving, turns around to ask Ruth, 'What's your name again?' Although Ruth never tells the reader how she feels about the question, nor how she responds, the moment feels pivotal, capturing how Ruth's earnestness and longing are so often met with coolness, even rejection. But she soon wins Maria over, and eventually Maria comes to be a part of Ruth's family. Like her biblical namesake, Ruth is loyal and steadfast to her friend, while Maria is independent and creative, often controlling the narrative of their relationship and even determining their future trajectories: Maria is an extrovert, so Ruth must be an introvert. Maria is the type to never settle down, while Ruth is going to get married. Ruth always looks to Maria for advice and approval, and Maria's responses to her vary among love, tolerance, and disgust. Reading scene after scene in which Ruth is so passive can be frustrating. She is content to be molded by Maria, unaware of the danger: She is becoming a person who knows herself only in relation to her friend. When Maria decides she wants to be an artist in New York, the girls both apply to and get into Bard College, where Ruth takes up painting and Maria studies film. Maria sees this moment as her great escape from bleak Pawtucket, while Ruth worries that she, too, is part of the past that her friend wants to leave behind. Maria is clear about one thing. 'When we go to school, we have to go our own way,' she tells Ruth. 'We don't have to be together all the time. We still can be close and be … separate.' In college, Ruth and Maria do pursue different paths and new relationships. The biggest test of their friendship comes when they move to New York City after graduation and both try to make it in the art world of the 1990s. Their childhood competitiveness grows into an adult professional envy: Where Maria meets easy success as a filmmaker, Ruth's path is more complicated, riddled with self-doubt and jealousy. Like a piece of cherished childhood clothing, their friendship appears more and more ill-fitting as time passes. The two grow apart, not because they change, but because they do not; they are stuck in the same dynamics, unable to find new ways to connect to each other. As the novel progresses, Ruth often stops existing on the page, overtaken by her endless loops of fixation on the thoughts and feelings of others. In part because the reader has no insight into Maria's perspective, Ruth's narrative voice makes it hard to discern what either woman gets from their friendship, or even the extent to which they know each other at all. I don't believe that Maria enjoys Ruth's overbearing attention, or that Ruth likes being consistently rejected by Maria. After a final confrontation, the women appear to accept their incompatibility, and their friendship becomes something more distant. But even when Ruth gets a prestigious fellowship at Bard and moves upstate with her new husband, her obsession with Maria never really disappears; it just morphs. If Ruth never stands up to Maria, it's because nothing is worth the risk of losing her. When they're teenagers, Maria asks Ruth to throw away the many portraits that Ruth painted of her; Ruth complies. 'I had a hard time forgiving her for that,' Ruth reflects, though she never tells that to Maria. Decades later, in New York, Maria uses footage of Ruth in a video without asking her permission. Watching herself on-screen, Ruth is unable to 'shake the feeling that there was a violent thrust to the video and that something had been done to me that I hadn't asked for.' Yet when Maria asks her what she thinks, Ruth demurs, telling Maria the piece is 'cool.' 'I would have been content spending the rest of my life walking behind her,' she thinks, as the two women cross the gallery back to their partners. It's an insight that makes the risk of their friendship clear: For Ruth, losing her friend would mean losing herself, too.
