Episodes

71
Sept. 13, 2026

Scallopocalypse

This week, Kate crashes out over an influencer's crash out about a friend allegedly copying her home, but it happens to be a home that looks like so many others online, it's basically the Instagram Face of fancy homes. Kate goes through the series slide by slide, and discusses adjacent topics, like "stop copying me" being girlhood's first legal argument, the time her own wedding website got copied word for word, and the difference between a scullery and a butler's pantry, which she learned again...
70
Sept. 5, 2026

Drops of Jupiter (with Nora)

This week, Nora McInerny joins Kate for a witchy birthday-week episode that escalates from lyric trivia and vintage Girl Talk into a full unlicensed spiritual review via tarot, numerology, astrocartography, and a 1982 birthday book, as read by two women who believe in nothing and also everything as long as it works in their favor. They investigate whether it's illegal to talk to dolphins, unpack the broken-smile industrial complex of 2000s love songs, mourn the lost art of the local commercial, ...
69
Aug. 27, 2026

GOODBYE EARL TUPPER

This week, Kate is back from the book-deadline trenches with a mini dive inspired by the many fellow Beths who misread Brenda Song's new NFL gig as "color analyst." What follows is a journey through a brief history of "having your colors done" and why we can't resist things that offer to help us explain ourselves to ourselves. Also covers Taylor Swift's Grammy Museum interview, some theories on Harry and Meghan's big move, and an elder-millennial's defense of KATSEYE. Enjoy! Order Kate's NYT Be...
68
Aug. 15, 2026

The Bore Ultimatum (feat. Nora and Caroline)

This week (for ep 2), Kate is joined by friends of the pod, Nora McInerny and Caroline Moss, for a group hang that begins with scorpions in Nora's laundry and only escalates from there. The three of them get into the perils of too many fourth-wall breaks on House of Stassi and the collective decline of reality TV, then Kate debuts a best friend game where everyone gets assigned a day of the week and a breakfast cereal, and unveils her own Catholic corner featuring Saint Magnus, certified babe. A...
67
Aug. 10, 2026

Coaches Coaching Brooches

This week, Kate asks an important question for the sake of equality in the workplace: can a woman carry two bags and be taken seriously? Can her bracelets clank? Jury's out, and she felt inspired to take on the genre of body language coaching and weird advice people give women about how to behave. Then, she opens the floor to the Beths, who deliver a cornucopia of workplace advice: lower your register, fix your vocal fry, no jingly earrings, no hair tie on your wrist, no mouse in the meeting, et...
66
July 19, 2026

WE NEVER STOOD A CHANCE (Parenting Edition)

This week, the air quality is apocalyptic, parents everywhere are staring down the summer childcare cliff, and Kate is feeling pro-tantrum.. What starts as a meditation on the summers of yore turns into one on modern parenting and why we never stood a chance. Through a mix of personal stories and listener submissions, this episode gets into the Nature Valley bars of motherhood (things that are structurally designed to crumble no matter what you do), and Kate unpacks why the U.S. treats raising t...
65
July 2, 2026

Cannes Debrief, MSG, and Celebs Making Out at the Heath (with Sami Sage)

This week, Kate briefly debriefs her week at Cannes Lions during a record-breaking heat wave, including how she accidentally hired a private French bodyguard in an armored Maybach, sweat off her spray tan across the Côte d'Azur, and what it's like to be at Coachella for vague marketing babes without AC when your brain is so fried you give the AC repairman the wrong room number and it stays broken. Then Sami Sage (co-founder of Betches, host of the Morning Announcements) joins for a catch-up cove...
64
June 21, 2026

It's Like Our Sleepover (with Anna Konkle)

This week, Kate chats with PEN15 co-creator Anna Konkle for a conversation that's equal parts silly and heavy, like the last two people awake at a sleepover asking about the meaning of life and swapping stories of their first thong. They discuss Anna's new memoir, The Sane One, and how it explores a different kind of nostalgia than her previous work, touching on topics like the grief, estrangement, and reconciliation that anchor the book, hand-slapping games like Miss Mary Mack, the kind of love...
63
June 11, 2026

Madison Square Jargon

This week, Kate meanders through "I Knew It, I Knew You" and the Toy Story 5 premiere, why she's changed her tune on the rumored Madison Square Garden wedding venue, and goes on various passionate detours about golf, a dramatic reading of Luke Bryan's "Fish Hunt Golf Drink," and digs through a moldy pouch of 2019 Post-it topics that yields takes on Ariel Charnas, Caroline Calloway, City High, Yikes pencils, and middle school cool-girl names. Enjoy! SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS Order Kate's NYT Bestsel...
62
May 31, 2026

Be Good, Not Well

This week, it's just Kate, an Aperol Spritz, and the tech bro quote about wine that accidentally kicked off the conversation we've all been needing about optimization culture and being tired of treating every part of life like a performance review. Plus, a round of News You Can Use about why fruit hasn't been sweet since 1996, this season's hottest mnemonic devices, the babydoll dress of it all, and reviewing what Olivia Rodrigo is doing differently in Drop Dead and The Cure, all of it strangely...
61
May 14, 2026

False Paternity, 14 Felonies, and a Former Bachelor: Stephani Young on Love Trapped

This week, Kate sits down with Stephani Young, the journalist (and longtime Beth!) behind the viral investigative podcast Love Trapped, the year-plus deep dive into the Clayton Echard paternity scandal that turned out to be so much bigger than a Bachelor Nation headline. Kate opens with why a story like this is so culturally tricky to talk about and the tension between believing women and recognizing when the systems built to protect them get weaponized. Then Kate and Stephani get into how the s...
60
May 7, 2026

1998 (feat. Caroline Moss)

This week, Kate is joined by Caroline Moss for an episode that was supposed to be about modern pop culture and somehow turned into mostly topics from 1998. They get into the longevity industrial complex and Kate's pitch for an old-age commune, the unhinged Duggar honeymoon prep CD, Lydia and Zach's definition of "naughty," and a Full House deep dive featuring Stephanie's catering arc and Hot Daddy and the Monkey Puppets. Caroline also tells a crazy true story of her fifth grade graduation, where...
59
April 26, 2026

DZ: Discovery Zone (BTI5 Live Practice)

This week, Kate is trying something new by returning to her old form. After taking time off and noticing her comment section brain rot, she's trying to get back to occasional one-pass, no-edits, no-looking-things-up format to practice for a live format of the show coming soon. It's the kind of episode where Reneesme, Billie Eilish, Five Below, and the Epstein files all somehow end up in the same conversation and it almost tracks. Also, some musing about the discomfort of realizing the millennial...
58
April 8, 2026

Yesteryear with Caro Claire Burke | Trad Wives, Secret Lives & Twist Ending (Spoilers)

This week, Kate sits down with Caro Claire Burke, author of the hit debut novel Yesteryear, the trad wife time travel thriller that triggered a publishing bidding war, has already been optioned by Anne Hathaway, and is Good Morning America's April book club pick. They discuss a variety of topics within the book (with spoilers, FYI), including how you write an unreliable narrator whose worldview fundamentally opposes your own, the layers of performance that start with God and end with the algorit...
57
March 19, 2026

The Taylor Frankie Paul of It All

This week, Kate is breaking her hiatus for a special report recorded before Thursday's news that ABC was scrapping TFP's season of The Bachelorette. Ultimately, she decided this episode was still a relevant conversation to have, given that she and her guest (Sam Dalton, LCSW @sam.the.therapistt) talked through the systems and cycles that made this week's fallout unsurprising long before the video leaked. Together, they unpack the rose colored glass ceiling of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, where ...
56
March 7, 2026

Taylor Swift Lyrics that Scratch Your Brain (Reprise)

This week, Kate attempts to revive (but then mostly records a new version of) a fan-favorite Patreon from 2021 about the way Taylor Swift pronounces words. We're talking plosives, brain-scratching vowels, and why certain words sung a certain way make you want to listen again, but with updated takes from Midnights to TTPD to Showgirl. Enjoy! Order Kate's NYT Bestselling book, One in a Millennial here! Text or leave a voicemail for Kate at 775-HEY-BETH! Caraway's cookware set is a favorite for ...
55
Feb. 22, 2026

Mama's Back at the Lake (Director's Cut feat. Caroline Moss)

This week, Kate and Caroline Moss revisit the beloved Mama Slay at the Lake episode with a director's cut of our delirious 6 AM conversation about irreverent merch, warm beans, Facebook walls, Maxine culture, and Steve Madden platform loafers, followed by a brand new conversation where we get into pun drift, Disney adults in matching shirts, the grievance merch pipeline, Kate's Hamilton/American Girl mashup, and why lake town signs are the truest window into the suppressed psyche of second home ...
54
Feb. 8, 2026

Mother, Son, and the Aioli Spirit (Director's Cut)

This week, Kate revisits an infamous episode from March 2020 about dips, sauces, and dipping sauces. Order Kate's NYT Bestselling book, One in a Millennial here! Text or leave a voicemail for Kate at 775-HEY-BETH! Right now, Betterwild is offering our listeners up to 40% off your order at Betterwild.com/BETHEREINFIVE. That's Betterwild.com/BETHEREINFIVE for up to 40% off your order. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code BETHEREINFIVE for up to 20% off. And if you get a Post-Purchase Survey, ...
53
Jan. 24, 2026

Bath and Body Jerks, Wash Your Face (Director's Cut)

The culture that made the Beths say the Beth culture was for them. Mashup ep with 40+ min of new audio. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS Order Kate's NYT Bestselling book, One in a Millennial here! Text or leave a voicemail for Kate at 775-HEY-BETH! Whether it's a weekend away, a big night out, or just a much-needed wardrobe refresh – your dream wardrobe is just one click away. Head to REVOLVE.com/BETHEREINFIVE, shop my edit, and take 15% off your first order with code BETHEREINFIVE. Offer ends February...
52
Jan. 11, 2026

Petty Little Liars (feat. Kelly) (From the Vault)

This week, Kate has an announcement that she shares at the beginning of the episode that will then explain the rest of the episode and why its title may sound familiar. Enjoy! Order Kate's NYT Bestselling book, One in a Millennial here! Text or leave a voicemail for Kate at 775-HEY-BETH! SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS Right now, Betterwild is offering our listeners up to 40% off your order at betterwild.com/BETHEREINFIVE. That's betterwild.com/BETHEREINFIVE for up to 40% off your order. Start the New...
51
Dec. 21, 2025

Red Delicious

This week, Kate reflects on 2025 for feeling depleting yet not defining, exhausting and sometimes forgettable; a year of endless micro-trends, political chaos, and moment sludge that somehow left very little to hold onto. Fun! She dives into "viral death cycle" and why nothing sticks anymore, explores the three stages of aging out of culture, explores why many of us feel our brains are broken, and processes the weird grief of realizing you're no longer "becoming" someone but existing deep in a r...
50
Dec. 14, 2025

Eras Tour Docuseries (Eps 1 and 2 feat. Sarah from Taylor Swift Style)

This week, Kate welcomes back Sarah Chapelle (Taylor Swift Style) to discuss the first two episodes of Disney+'s The End of an Era docuseries. They dissect the emotional weight of episodes 1 and 2; from the devastating Vienna terror plot and Southport attack to Taylor's leadership style, bonus day generosity, and the physical toll of performing and beyond. Kate and Sarah analyze what the docuseries reveals about Taylor's collaborative process with her team, they predict future episodes (Miami co...
49
Dec. 7, 2025

Shelf Help

This week, Kate investigates Elf on the Shelf: cute Christmas tradition or late-capitalist nightmare? After a simple Instagram question turned into hundreds of responses about surveillance capitalism, invisible labor, and performative parenting, she started to unpack what this manufactured tradition reveals about millennial parenting, Christmas magic, and the mental load of the holidays. Can it just be holly-jolly casual for those of us who like light whimsy labor, or does it have to match its c...
48
Nov. 23, 2025

Was D.A.R.E. an MLM?

This week, Kate's peer pressuring you to listen to an episode about the DARE program in the 90s and how it made every fifth grader in America incredibly wary of adults wearing trench coats. From winning essay contests and meeting Darren the Lion to interpretive dance performances and questionable field trips, listeners' stories did not disappoint. This episode also explores the program's history, why DARE may have worked to spook many of us but was statistically ineffective, the surprisingly dar...