Rich Text

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live," Joan Didion famously wrote at the outset of her 1979 essay collection "The White Album." This was always descriptive, rather than self-congratulating. It's not that our souls are fed by art, but that we need to convince ourselves that our lives are more than random chaos. In order to continue on, in order to give meaning to lives filled with pain and d...

It became clear that "Love Story," the FX-Hulu limited series about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, had broken through in a major way when Curbed ran an article titled "Kennedy Cosplay Is Eating The City." Young women were flocking to C.O. Bigelow, the pharmacy where Bessette shopped for her headbands, in droves. Panna II, where the fictional Kennedy and Bessette went on their first date (likely apo...

We watched Netflix's latest experiment in romance, the age-blind dating show "Age of Attraction," with a blend of boredom and horror that eventually shaded into a spicier blend of horror and fascination. The show's finale dropped this week, and we are finally ready to weigh in. So let's go! "Age of Attraction" brings together a group of mixed-age singles to explore relationships without learning e...

Season 4 of "Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" is a dark one, but its darkest moments arrive in the second half of the season. Most of them involve star Taylor Frankie Paul, whose toxic cycle with her ex Dakota Mortensen is fully reignited as the season progresses, even as she's gearing up to star on "The Bachelorette." By the end of episode 10, it's abundantly clear that Taylor is in no way prepared...

There are few moments more off-putting in season 4 of "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" than when Jessi Draper's husband, Jordan Ngatikaura, earnestly tells the camera that "DadTok is a lot funnier than MomTok." But in a way, it also sets the tone of the season. "SLOMW" is now a reality show about Mormon (and lapsed Mormon) mom content creators who have become bonafide celebrities. And that celeb...

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 .

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 throug...

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 arr...

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. Showrun...

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 t...

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 bedch...

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 off...

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 Minne...

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...

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 meeti...

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 C...

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 c...

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,...

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...

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 sh...

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 . Mea...

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 t...

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 o...

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 wer...

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 Chri...