If there have been ever a face for radio, Alexandra Cooper’s shouldn’t be it.
In her just lately bought palatial West Hollywood house, the 27-year-old podcast host stands at a petite 5 foot 5 with a Colgate campaign-ready smile. Each time she laughs, Cooper’s hair — waist size and impossibly platinum — catches the sunshine. With these attributes, alongside Cooper’s affable goldendoodle (Henry) and a $60-million cope with the most important audio streaming service on the planet (Spotify), Cooper embodies each inch of the lady you like to hate. The factor is, I like her — and so do her 3 million listeners.
Cooper has lengthy requested us to name her “daddy,” however solely within the final 12 months did she actually earn the title. Pitched in 2018 as a “lady’s locker-room dialog,” the initially “co-parented” “Name Her Daddy” seemed very completely different — anchored within the fundamentals of fourth-wave feminism and distributed by frat bro-favorite media firm, Barstool Sports activities. Alongside the winding highway to Spotify — a journey that included a dramatic, much-documented showdown between its Alex Cooper and the present’s co-creator Sofia Franklyn — “Name Her Daddy” would drop its authentic logline and different “founding father”… however not its edge. Now, virtually each episode of the present options Cooper with a brand new visitor, for whom she has one immediate in frequent: “Inform me about your childhood.”
“Folks will inform me they miss the outdated ‘Name Her Daddy,’ however that present was dying,” Cooper mentioned. “We had been getting decrease numbers than we’d ever gotten. It was like, ‘What number of occasions can we speak about intercourse?’ I used to be getting slightly bit bored. I should be mentally stimulated by my content material.”
When the present first caught alight, Cooper splurged on her first huge buy: a cloud sofa. Consolation, because it occurs, is the driving pressure behind a lot of Cooper’s decision-making — from her array of sweatsuits (immediately, within the crippling 90-degree warmth of Los Angeles’ springtime, she’s clad in full “Father” merch), to her podcast course of. For years, the Pennsylvania native wouldn’t solely document however ebook expertise, analysis and edit virtually fully alone (a former movie scholar, she even chooses enhancing software program Premiere Professional as a result of it feels “cozy”). Her publicist calls Cooper a “one-woman operation,” whereas Spotify claims she’s essentially the most “hands-on” podcasting expertise on its roster.
“There’s this assumption that making a podcast is simple, nevertheless it’s quite a lot of f—ing work. I take it with nice pleasure that my complete life revolves round it,” she explains. “Each Sunday I’m working, I work seven days every week. And I find it irresistible. I might not wish to do the rest.”
The fallout with Franklyn, her former greatest good friend and enterprise accomplice, additional fueled the host’s “balls to the wall” motivation. Each ladies publicly delineated discrepancies in work ethic and imaginative and prescient, in addition to conflicting concepts as to their “value” — Cooper by way of a YouTube confessional, and Franklyn on her new podcast, “Sofia with an F” (“Your abilities are menial; Mine are intangible,” she mentioned about Cooper). The latter continues to deal with the drama, just lately alleging Cooper used a “ghostwriter” all through the podcast.
“[Sofia] mentioned I wasn’t capable of stroll on set and converse for myself,” Cooper remembers. “Instantly I wished to inform everybody that’s not true, however then I had simply sat down with Miley Cyrus with no notes, so I believed, ‘You realize what? I’ll let the work converse for itself.’”
In “Name Her Daddy’s” band breakup, Cooper emerged the Justin Timberlake — unscathed and in the end, triumphant. A former Division I soccer participant at Boston College, Cooper is the primary to check her well-publicized contract with Spotify to that of an expert athlete hitting the massive time. An annual wage of $20 million makes Cooper the highest-paid feminine podcaster on Spotify — and second solely to Joe Rogan general. Whereas she acknowledges this sort of sum may incline others to “coast,” Cooper has no plans to relaxation on her laurels.
“[Since] I had already gone via a lot drama in my profession, I already had the chances of individuals pondering I used to be going to have the ability to do it in opposition to me,” she explains. “Now, each week it’s like, how am I going to prime this one?”
“Because the present has gotten larger and the model has gotten larger, my life has modified,” Cooper explains.
(Max Montgomery)
The present’s progress has allowed Cooper to construct an all-female group (together with, in the end, an editor), “the perfect half” in regards to the cash. “Dude, it’s inspiring,” different feminine presenters have advised her in regards to the multimillion-dollar deal, she says. “A lady simply received what prior to now would’ve been a male contract.”
“To go from a public fallout over cash to this [took some processing],” she says. “I made a decision to simply give it some thought as a very cool win for girls. And, in fact, I’ll pay for my mates on a regular basis — shock them with aircraft tickets, decide up the test for each dinner. In any other case, what is that this all for?”
Cooper and I are sitting down weeks after our interview was initially scheduled, her time now devoted to procuring high-profile expertise. In a primary for Spotify earlier this 12 months, “Name Her Daddy” debuted a two-part, in-app video particular, that includes Jamie Lynn Spears. Throughout their dialog, Spears learn aloud private messages to sister Britney, dissolving into tears as Cooper dissected their relationship. Upon the episodes’ launch, followers of Britney referred to as for a “Name Her Daddy” boycott resulting from Jamie Lynn’s conspicuous silence in the course of the #FreeBritney motion. Britney herself would additionally respond.
“With Jamie Lynn folks, had been saying, ‘You possibly can have gone more durable,’ when she was shaking and crying,” Cooper remembers. “The episodes I’ve been given essentially the most s— about are essentially the most downloaded of ‘Name Her Daddy.’ What does it say about you, that you simply hate it and also you’re nonetheless watching it?”
Following the Spears tell-all was a two-part collection with Emma Chamberlain, a Gen Z supernova whose personal podcast has, at occasions, even unseated “Name Her Daddy” within the Spotify rankings. Then got here Julia Fox. The “Uncut Gems” actress was on the top of her short-lived relationship with Kanye West when she proceeded, at Cooper’s request, to interrupt down her project as his “muse.”
“I imply I used to be Josh Safdie’s muse when he wrote Uncah Jaahms,” she mentioned, pronounced in a native-New Yorker-Valley-girl hybrid drawl.
In a single day, “Uncah Jaahms” irrevocably entered the digital vernacular. Shay Mitchell and Cara Delevingne parodied the viral clip. Netflix up to date the movie’s title to match Fox’s “yassified” pronunciation. Those that had by no means heard of “Name Her Daddy” earlier than knew it now.
“I’m very calculated in regards to the timing. I get pitched so many A-list celebrities, however I don’t have them on as a result of they’re not going to speak,” Cooper claims. “J Lo desires to advertise her film, however I’m not E! Information — I wish to have actual conversations.”
Cross-legged reverse Cooper in her fleecy armchairs, assuming the roles of therapist and consumer feels inevitable. The daughter of a psychologist and sports activities tv producer, Cooper appeared predestined for her place. Whereas her childhood was captured in countless house movies, she was fast to maneuver behind the digital camera — foreseeing a future in content material enhancing. After finishing a level in movie and tv, she spent her post-grad days as a print advert salesperson for Gotham journal, furiously making use of for manufacturing jobs in New York. When “Name Her Daddy” was born, Cooper’s intention was that the present fund a then-budding vlogging profession.
“I had by no means heard a podcast after I first began — I used to be simply going off of what I felt I wished to hearken to,” she says. “I’m additionally a shopper. I’m taking a look at who’s in everybody’s mouth that week. In the event that they’re thinking about it, I’m going to be thinking about it.”
It possible gained’t shock the “Daddy Gang” (Cooper’s affectionate time period for “Name Her Daddy” disciples) that their Father is an avid remedy goer. A grasp of introspection, Cooper typically attracts on her personal shortfalls to elicit vulnerability in friends. A number of months again, she interviewed notorious “Soho Grifter” Anna Delvey (sure, that Anna Delvey) by way of video name in jail. After repeated evasive responses from the disgraced socialite, Cooper minimize proper to the chase: “Who damage you?” she requested.
“That was the toughest interview I’ve ever finished,” she says. “I wasn’t getting in there to get her to confess to something, I simply wished to speak to Anna Delvey. Folks sit down with me as a result of I feel they’ll see I’m absolutely coming into it with no judgment. … On social media we cut back human beings to headlines. I get to current a 360 view of a visitor that has solely had a snapshot earlier than.”
The host admits the intimacy she fosters with “Name Her Daddy” friends is commonly misconstrued. Whereas she’s typically requested to drinks or dinner, Cooper prides herself on sustaining skilled distance. It’s straightforward to grasp why. If Cooper friends round with A-listers, “Name Her Daddy” may change into beholden to them.
“I’ve gone to the events — and I’m not s— on anybody — nevertheless it’s not as glamorous because it seems,” she mentioned. “A number of these persons are actually lonely. They don’t have quite a lot of actual relationships. The extra I get into interviewing, I’ve realized it’s crucial for me to attract that line. Nobody in L.A. can say they know me.”
After signing the Spotify deal, Cooper had a “psychological breakdown.” She agonized for 3 weeks over her first episode, “I Glucked My Option to the High” (a particular allusion to oral intercourse), which marked the daybreak of a brand new “Name Her Daddy” period and was her final actual revelatory episode. After years of mining her private life for comedic content material, Cooper had determined to guard her privateness. She’ll nonetheless usually point out her boyfriend, a film producer, on the podcast, however by no means by title.
“Because the present has gotten larger and the model has gotten larger, my life has modified,” she explains. “I’m in Hollywood. [My boyfriend and I] wanted to discover a line for our relationship — and I respect my listeners a lot as a result of they’re getting fulfilled otherwise now.”
Cooper considers the Daddy Gang’s perspective in every visitor, each minimize. When one visitor tried to assert accountability for her personal sexual harassment, Cooper unceremoniously concluded the interview, including a disclaimer for impressionable listeners. It’s not unusual for Cooper to obtain fan photographs of group “Name Her Daddy” listening periods.
“I had an unimaginable deal go public, and I feel it’s best to count on to see that once more otherwise,” Cooper mentioned.
(Max Montgomery)
“With the Daddy Gang I’m like, ‘These persons are my household, how can I feed my household?’” she says, including her Instagram inbox developed into one thing of a casual fan suggestion field. “I higher present up each week and blow everybody’s socks off.”
Like Cooper herself, “Name Her Daddy” is maturing. It’s typically talked about within the same breath because the actor-led interview podcast “Sensible-less,” which inked a $60- $80-million unique deal to see it increase right into a full a podcast manufacturing firm. Cooper equally envisions the “Name Her Daddy” model as “larger than [her]self,” hoping to at some point step into the position of govt producer on a special mission.
“I had an unimaginable deal go public, and I feel it’s best to count on to see that once more otherwise. What I can say is that it’s not going to simply proceed in the way in which that it’s going. There’s going to be a shift.”
For now, the objective is to ascertain a greater work-life steadiness — although it clearly isn’t coming straightforward. Each query, regardless of how private, Cooper pivots again to the podcast. She speaks quickly, as if scurrying to supply the opposite particular person the ground. At occasions, the podcaster will overlook she’s the topic of this interview, shifting the dialog to my life. It appears solely when does Alexandra Cooper really feel at her most attention-grabbing. It might be straightforward to attract parallels between the podcaster and celebrity presenters of yesteryear, revered for throwing hardballs in hushed tones. Then once more, Oprah or Barbara Walters by no means had an “Uncah Jaahms.”
“Make me sound sensible,” she laughs as she reveals me to her 8-foot door.
Cooper needn’t fear. Like dad, she’s received it coated.
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