Started in 2018, few podcasts made more headlines and caused more of a pop culture stir in 2020 than Call Her Daddy. With an incredibly loyal fan base, sometimes referred to as “The Daddy Gang”, it isn’t just big guests and viral moments that keep Call Her Daddy at the top of podcast charts. The podcast, hosted by Alexandra Cooper, and formerly Cooper and Sofia Franklyn, set social media and tabloids ablaze when new episodes suddenly stopped appearing in podcast feeds in April 2020. Details soon emerged of contractual disagreements, financial disputes, and creative disagreements with partial owner and distributor Barstool Sports, eventually resulting in Franklyn leaving the show.
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Cooper and Franklyn, two twenty-somethings who met by sharing an apartment, are best known for their hot takes on sex and dating, life in New York City, and millennial culture. Although some episodes of Call Her Daddy feature guests, the majority are off-the-cuff discussions full of inside jokes, references to past episodes, sex advice, and stories of dates gone wrong. In 2020, it was one of the Top 20 most popular podcasts on Apple Podcasts and the fifth most popular on Spotify.
In May 2020, after about a month without new releases, a 30-minute episode was released on the Call Her Daddy feed where Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy began to explain the falling out of Cooper and Franklyn. Originally spurred by disagreements over salaries, content ownership, and merchandising money, different visions for the show eventually led Franklyn to depart. Although she later released her own podcast, Sofia With An F in October 2020, Cooper seems to have gotten the better end of the deal so far and continues to host Call Her Daddy independently.
Call Her Daddy exists in a universe of its own, and especially when Franklyn and Cooper hosted together it was hard to simply jump into the show in the middle. From Suitman and Milf Hunter to the Gluck Gluck 9000, new listeners will have more than a few terms to look up on Urban Dictionary to fully understand some references. If you want to give it a shot though, start with these seven episodes that explain why Call Her Daddy is so popular, meme-able, and drama-filled.
If you want to truly understand the drama that went down in April and May 2020, these two episodes are the best place to start. First, Dave Portnoy hijacks the Call Her Daddy feed to share his side of the story, defending Barstool Sports and explaining that he had offered both hosts new contracts with a base salary of half a million dollars each plus bonuses. He goes on to explain that while Cooper had agreed to the new terms, Franklyn refused. While both hosts then took to their own social media to begin explaining their own sides of the story, Cooper returned to the Call Her Daddy feed with a solo episode the following week.
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In Episode 82, Cooper keeps things relatively cordial and begins to explain how the show will move forward. She explains that the two are no longer co-hosts or roommates, and tries to stay positive about the future of the show. While it’s not a typical series of Call Her Daddy episodes, if you missed the drama in 2020 and are trying to catch up, this is the best place to start. For a complete picture of the situation, you can also check out the first episodes of Sofia With An F, although for reasons either contractural or otherwise, Franklyn chooses to go into less detail than Cooper and Portnoy do on the topic.
The only real way to get into Call Her Daddy is to start at the first episode. Nicknames are explained, initial questions are answered, and more tips and hot takes are thrown out in 30 minutes than you’ll be able to handle. Starting at the beginning is also a great way to get to know Cooper and Franklyn of course, and they do go into a bit of detail about how they met and what their backgrounds are in this episode.
The original Call Her Daddy format arguably gained so much popularity because of Franklyn and Cooper’s no holds barred storytelling. The show, at its best moments, truly felt like eavesdropping on two friends having a real conversation, and for several reasons, the first few months of episodes were the best example of that.
Every member of the Daddy Gang remembers where they were when in October 2018 Cooper introduced what has gone down in history as one of the most iconic moments in Call Her Daddy history.
Without a doubt, the thing that makes Call Her Daddy so entertaining is the raunchy detail and over the top storytelling. This episode established the podcast and created a meme that transcended the Call Her Daddy feed, so much that you will still see references to the episode in dating app bios and Instagram over two years later. While we won’t go into as much detail as she does when explaining the concept to Franklyn, the over the top narrative is good for more than a few laughs and maybe even a few things you can bring to the bedroom.
Probably the biggest guest on Call Her Daddy, and perhaps the most famous member of #DADDYGANG, is Miley Cyrus. The casual nature of the show led to a free-flowing interview with the musician and actor where she shared intimate details about past relationships and her own sex life and sexuality.
In a way, the fact that the episode was hosted by Cooper on her own may have led to a better interview, where Cyrus was able to speak more and a real conversation could be had. Although Cooper has suggested that eventually, the show will return to two hosts, if it doesn’t, more episodes where celebrities open up like this could be a good way to keep the feed engaging.
Another memorable early episode came at the end of 2018, where the topics were slightly (just slightly) less raunchy than usual and the hosts attempt to break down the elusive “friend zone” and how to get out of it. It is worth noting that no episode of Call Her Daddy would get anything less than an R-rating, but parts of this one do stay a little tamer.
Furthermore, in addition to the 2020 drama, most of the other media attention around Call Her Daddy comes from discussions about it as a piece of feminist media. If you are more interested in the show from that angle, not just for the blowjob tips, this episode may be a good example because of the more real-life dating advice given.
At the core, Call Her Daddy is supposed to be a sex and dating advice show, so if that’s what you’re looking for there is no better place to go than the three “Daddy Hotline” episodes. In this series of questions, the hosts address everything from sleeping with a professor, their worst dates of all time, and more.
The episode is full of stories that are both hilarious and at times, gross, but that’s the charm of Call Her Daddy. This one is certainly not for the faint of heart and maybe it is because this type of episode is truly for the fans that Franklyn and Cooper seem to be even more open about their lives than usual.
Since Franklyn departed from the show, Cooper has invited several new and repeat guests onto the show to essentially serve as co-hosts. This episode with comedian and podcaster Hannah Berner has a similar feel to early Call Her Daddy shows and features a hilarious story that you can probably start to imagine based on the episode title. Because Berner and Cooper know each other from outside of the show as well, the “eavesdropping on two friends” certainly comes back in the 60-minute episode.
The show also started uploading more episode videos to Youtube around this time, which frankly is a more enjoyable and easier to follow the way to listen to the show. Other episodes from late 2020 and early 2021, including interviews with Tana Mongeau, Lana Rhodes, Emily Morse of Sex With Emily, and others, also got the video treatment and it looks like most 2021 episodes will be released on Youtube either in segments or as full episodes.
Whether you’re visiting for the Call Her Daddy for the tips, the comedy, the drama, or all three, starting as a new listener can be an overwhelming experience. Our best suggestion is to start at the beginning or to start at Episode 82 when the new format began. Or, just pick a random episode and start in the middle. You most likely won’t get all the references but you will absolutely learn a thing or two.
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Episode 84: The 3rd Roommate Speaks
If you are still craving more Call Her Daddy fallout drama, this episode with the third roommate that lived with Cooper and Franklyn is sure to do the trick.
Episode 29: Why They Won’t F*ck You
The episode title says it all.
Episode 103: Tana Mongeau Exposed
Another episode with a big guest, fans of model and internet personality Tana Mongeau will be all over this interview from late 2020.
Episode 31: You’re Just A Hole
A fan favorite episode, Cooper and Franklyn discuss their observations and some hot takes about men in what is probably still one of the funniest episodes to date.
Episode 48: The Daddy Hotline
The original hotline episode, where questions about staying friends with exes, sending nudes, and more are tackled.
Episode 17: Daddy Girls Arrested and Kinky Fetishes
Before the big fallout, Franklyn made headlines in 2019 when she was arrested for underage drinking in Utah. This episode relives that experience and more.
Episode 52: College Life – Being Hot vs. Not
An especially funny and topical episode for anyone still in college, or anyone who wants to relive their college glory days a bit.
Episode 97: The Life of a Porn Star (ft. Lana Rhoades)
All the questions you were never able to ask are brought up in this episode. Rhoades is a great guest and is very open about her career, industry secrets, and more.
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