Life Will Be the Death of Me with Chelsea Handler - Minisode: Beat It! with Yamaneika Saunders

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

A followup about an 0nlyfans mishap.  Then: A book club is threatened by political divides. * Need some advice from Chelsea? Email us at [e-mail] * Executive Producer Catherine Law Edited & Engineered by Brad Dickert * * * * * The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the Podcast author, or individuals participating in the Podcast, and do not represent the opinions of iHeartMedia or its employees.  This Podcast should not be used as medical advice, mental health advice, mental health counseling or therapy, or as imparting any health care recommendations at all.  Individuals are advised to seek independent medical, counseling advice and/or therapy from a competent health care professional with respect to any medical condition, mental health issues, health inquiry or matter, including matters discussed on this Podcast. Guests and listeners should not rely on matters discussed in the Podcast and shall not act or shall refrain from acting based on information contained in the Podcast without first seeking independent medical advice.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Her name is Yamanika. I don't know if you've been exposed to her yet through this podcast or through our shows or through her Instagram. Exposed to me is a great, yeah. Yeah, it's exposure is how I would frame it. Thank you. And the only reason why I'm here is for exposure. Catherine, what do we have on the docket for today?

Well, we have an update from a previous caller. This is Savannah. She had called in on our Kevin Hart episode. She is not a person doing OnlyFans, but her dad thought she was doing OnlyFans because his wife. Oh, and the stepmom was spreading rumors about her, right? Exactly. The stepmom was going around the family,

telling everybody that this girl was on OnlyFans. Why? I don't know. She had made some offhanded comment about like, I wonder how much they make or how do they do their taxes. And like she started telling everybody she was doing OnlyFans. Oh, wow. Yeah.

So the advice was to like hit it head on, have a conversation with her. And so she's like kind of not talking to her stepmom because she's mad at her. So I asked for an update. She says, I have my tail between my legs because we've continued to just ignore each other. She lives three hours away

and we don't have to talk much anymore. I'm getting nervous as her daughter, my stepsister, is getting married this year, and I want to tackle it by then, August. I just have fear over how she'll receive what I want to say. She will shut down and get defensive and say things like, well, I guess I'm just the worst person ever. I don't want to pull my dad into this anymore, and I think I just need to call her when I'm feeling brave.

I guess I just haven't been feeling brave, and she hasn't tried anything either. The advice you and Chelsea gave was wonderful, and I've listened back to it to make sure it lives in my head when the time for the conversation comes. I just don't know when that would be. Signed, a nervous and disappointed non-sex worker stepdaughter, Savannah. No, baby, baby. I know I wasn't here for the first one.

Who gives a crap? Why are you talking to your stepmother? Beat it. You told everybody in the family I was on OnlyFans, bitch. Beat it. I don't understand why she got to have a conversation. And guess what? I'm going to be at my stepsister's wedding.

My dad going to be there. I'm going to be there. Unless the stepsister tell you to beat it and then you know where the stepsister lie. I don't understand this nonsense of I got to tackle this conversation with a woman that you already know is going to be defensive and is passive aggressive and playing the victim. Beat it, lady. Yeah. So that's me updating you, giving you updated advice. That's better advice than I gave the first time around, quite frankly.

I mean, yeah, fuck her. I think the girl was upset because her dad actually was like believing the mother. But also, exactly, like, fuck off if you're spreading rumors about me like that that aren't true. If there's no basis, like, of fact, then no. Yeah. Like, fuck off is right. Fuck off. Fuck her.

So, new advice, Savannah, just fuck her. Yeah. So, we do have a caller today. Ashley writes in. Her subject line is, politics are destroying my book club. Dear Chelsea, I'm part of a six-woman book club that consists of the following demographic politically. One MAGA, three liberal Dems, one moderate Dem, think Bill Maher Dem, this is me, and

one extremely woke progressive. We live in Seattle, however, all the Dems are transplants from California and the MAGA fan is a transplant from Idaho. I was home sick during our last gathering in early February when a notable fight erupted over the current Trump administration's work since taking office. It resulted in the MAGA individual leaving the gathering in tears and one remaining progressive and three liberals agreeing to kick her out of the book club. When we planned our next meetup, I inquired about talking to MAGA and moving the group forward without her. I received backlash

from the progressives that she was not worthy of feedback given her values. I disagree with this. Kicking someone out of a club they've been in for six years with no feedback, then continuing to post about it on social media is a textbook form of high school bullying. We're 37. Grow the fuck up. And yes, we've already tried, agreed to disagree, and don't talk politics in our book club. However, it's difficult to avoid these topics in 2025. I do not believe in cancel culture, nor do I believe in ghosting. And while I've spent my entire life residing in coastal elite quote-unquote areas, I have a handful of family members who voted for Trump that I would never dream of cutting out of my life. I feel strongly that further segregation of our two communities is compounding the current issues we're facing in America.

Finally, this has raised some questions for me about my liberal friends who are more than happy to continue life in their own political bubble and dump someone just because they don't share their beliefs. As it stands, I'm wondering if I should excuse myself from the group altogether. Ashley. Sounds like a Supreme Court situation here. I mean, liberals, progressives, this is a hard day. Moderate and then a MAGA.

Okay, cop it. Hi. Hi. How are you? Hey, Chelsea. I'm well. How are you? So I don't know.

I mean, what do you think? I feel like there's- Do you want me to go first? I think we're going to- Okay. Right. Yeah. You go first. I mean, I'm in a book club, so we try, you know, this book club is really centered. Any of the book clubs I've ever been in have been centered around people that are sort of like-minded in ways, right? There's something that's threading us together. And I

feel like when we've had dissension in the club, it's probably somebody, you know, people didn't like somebody or whatever it was. So I've seen people come and go in book clubs and you just go to another damn book club. I think it's unfortunate that it did get political. I think the issue probably right now is, I understand like you have people in your family that you would never turn away from, even though they voted for Donald Trump. And I think you have the capacity to do that. Right now, for me, if I'm honest in this time being a woman and being a Black woman, I think it's a matter of life or death for me. When I start to see people that are saying certain things about certain values and people being less than human or having to go back to places that

they never even were from you know it becomes life or death so then I do look at people during this time very differently than maybe I did when we all you know I didn't agree that you know George Bush Jr. was president like we there was no way I was I would have ever gotten rid of somebody because they voted for him but we're talking for me right now the president we have is very dangerous to people like me and so it's like a matter of life or death and I can see how people are getting crunchy in that time and I think maybe if this is going to cause you a tear you may have to just go to another place you know what I'm saying because when one of the things about the book clubs are like we're we respect each other's opinions you know even about their

interpretation of books you know interpretations of words and what the authors are saying or what the point of the story is. And if you can't really have respect for somebody on the basis of something about their point of view politically, I think it's going to be hard for you to respect them in anything that they have to say about literature. I think that's a really interesting perspective, just about the point of the book club, obviously, is to respect each other's opinions because you're going to have different opinions about how you interpret things that you read, etc. I think what was really interesting for me is this all came up. So your book, I think, Chelsea came out in February. So I was traveling and reading your book around the time that this

happened. And obviously I'm thinking of certain chapters in your book that come to mind because there's a theme of sisterhood, right? In your book about being able to have tough conversations respectfully. I'm thinking of the Jane Fonda chapter, right? Your friend who partied a little too hard, who ended up pursuing their sobriety, right? How, and so to me, I think the bigger issue is are we now at a place in life like if these are your my friends are we now at a place in life where if we have a disagreement with someone we don't give them the basic decency and respect of having a tough conversation and explaining why you want a relationship to end or why you don't agree about something I think that's more what I'm struggling with

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In terms of the underlying values, does that make sense? Yeah, that does make sense. And it's like, it seems like it's just really up to you. You know what I mean? It's really a personal decision. Like, do you want, I mean, you can always reach out to this woman and give it to her straight as a sister,

you know, in the name of sisterhood, like take it upon yourself to be like, listen. I mean, what is your understanding of the whole situation? What is your understanding of her understanding? Well, I think she lives in her own media bubble, right? So she consumes what she wants to consume. And so she ironically is the one. So book club existed before COVID, right? So started in 2018-ish, right? And obviously Trump was president then. And so we have kind of agreed to disagree and we don't talk politics at book club rule. And we're not reading like seriously political books and book club right these are like chachi fun uplifting let's drink wine books so

we paused hiatus in 2020 got back together after you know peak covid and we just continued from there i mean trump was out of office so it didn't really come up but since he has been back in office and obviously with the election last year she's often the one who brings up politics knowing that she's the only trump supporter in the group so that's where it's also been agitating she comes from a place of i want to learn i want to hear your opinion i want to understand your viewpoints which i think we all welcome having conversations even if they might be uncomfortable and respectfully but it comes from kind of the fox news lens of anytime we engage in the conversation it's like well what about when hillary did it right she just follows that like media playbook

And so the conversations end up being not productive. Yeah, I think that's the bottom line. Is it productive? Like, it's nice to be able to extend your tolerance to someone who has a different viewpoint if you can have productive conversations. And I don't mean just by getting them to understand what you believe. I mean, actually having productive, thought-provoking conversations and being open to new ideas and new information on both sides.

So, I mean, if she is bringing up politics, it's kind of like she that's the reason she's not in the group. You know what I mean? You're not there to talk about politics. You just said that and you guys all understand that. And especially her being like the only MAGA person, of course, she's going to feel outnumbered and want to like, you know, what a dog does to like mark their territory to almost just establish some sort of like you're not going to roll me over or roll over. You know, like she's probably trying to establish some sort of dominance or just a placeholder at the very minimum. But it's just it's a matter of what does she think that happened? Does she know what it is that she got nixed from the group? Well, yeah. So interestingly, so I was traveling and missed last book club.

But I guess she announced to the group that she's just going to move to Texas because living in Seattle is pointless and she can't date anyone here because none of they're too liberal and too woke. So it's just like, OK, that's the solution. Just move to a red state. But that's her, though. You can't blame your other book club friends who are the liberals and progressives. You can't blame them for her. From what you're telling me, she is an agitator. Not just because she's a Republican or a MAGA or whatever. She keeps bringing it up. She knows that's not the forum for that kind of conversation. I want you to see where you keep aligning yourself with her, which I think is the biggest problem. Stop aligning yourself with her. You keep having this pity for her for whatever reason, right? And it's like she doesn't deserve any pity in where she comes into a situation and she's trying to antagonize it and agitate it. And most certainly, if there is a constant conversation about what she feels, you know, with this current presidency and all of this stuff and nobody's bringing that up, maybe she should go somewhere where people are willing to engage her in that conversation. Yeah, I think what you're saying is like you have a set of principles and that's great. You can still engage with people who are Trump supporters and you can still talk to your family members. But this instance, like this instance, this woman has kind of caused her removal from the book club.

It sounds like. So so while you have your principles, you can still hold on to those and remain in your book club. She just kind of worked outside the lines like that doesn't change that you're open to talking to people who have different political beliefs. And it sounds like she's still in the club, isn't she? Because how is she making all these announcements? Is she out the club? Yeah, she's she's engaged with us still. I mean, that's what I'm saying.

OK, yeah, y'all got to really show her the door. She just sounds like a pain in the ass, regardless of her political alignment. You know what I mean? Yeah, and you seem fun and cool and upbeat. And I know you seem like you got sympathy for this lady, but shake her off. Yeah, and focus on other Trump-like supporters that are more, you know, that you can have conversations with that don't surround politics. You know, I totally am with you that it would be nice to be having in conversation with

people who are from different political beliefs. But unfortunately, I feel like Yamanika feels like I feel like it is a deal breaker. Chelsea, so you mentioned recently on your social media that you have some family, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, but who don't share your political beliefs as well and may be supporters of Trump, if I recall. They're not Trump supporters, but they are conservative. I don't know that they voted for Trump. Nobody has admitted to voting for Trump. Nobody would admit that to me and my family. But there are supporters of more conservative politics and, you know, arguments about affirmative action, arguments about Russia, Ukraine, who's really at fault there, things that I find intolerable and propaganda, you know, and I don't. And so I draw the line at like if you're spewing conspiracy theories, I'm not interested in being around that. And that's for me a personal thing that I've just, you know, I don't want that. I don't want that toxicity around me.

I want to talk about things that are actually happening. So I have a different set of values, but I like your principle. I think I totally support that for you. But I think this woman is just kind of outside of that. Do you know what I'm saying? Fair. Yeah. And I think this is validating.

I think the reason I loved your most recent book as well, Chelsea, is because I kind of followed have followed the same trajectory in my life where 10 years ago, I would have told someone to fuck off and never spoken to them again if they even irritated me a little bit. Right. and I've spent some years in therapy after COVID lockdowns and whatnot, that I'm now working to be a better person in terms of tough conversations and whatnot, and almost feel sometimes I err a little bit too far on the other side, right? I've gone from one pendulum to the other of giving

people passes on things or feeling like, well, how am I playing a part in this if someone is being an antagonist? So it's nice to hear this perspective and get a little clarity on this. So thank you. Yeah. And if you wanted, like, if you want to show in a strength of sisterhood or a demonstration of sisterhood, like if you want to shoot her an email and go, listen, I'm sorry that this didn't work out with the book club, but I just want you to know, like, you kept bringing up politics in a place that is not supposed to be, it's supposed to be politically free.

Like, if you want to extend that to her, you can, but I wouldn't feel terrible about her not being in the book club anymore. Like, I would let that go. It's not our job to like, you know, it's not everything. It's like, I think the great thing about getting older is understanding when and where to have those lines. You know what I mean? Yeah. And she might have tapped out on her reading source.

I mean, if she's voting for Trump, how many books could she really hustle down? Trump supporters read, too. Okay. Well, yeah. See, spot, run. That's four words. But they won't be reading for long, though, because there'll be no books left to read. So there's that.

There's that reassurance to the other girls. You can tell the progressives that. But anyway, yeah, I appreciate your call and I appreciate what you're saying. And I understand. But I think you should let this one go and like focus on that principle that you have in a in a more constructive in other areas of your life where it will be met with the same thing. Yeah. No, I appreciate it. Thank you, Chelsea. Catherine, good to see you again. And your book is next in our book club. Oh, great. Great. Well, she should fucking read that. You know, bring her back for that.

That's her denouement. That's her denouement, her last book. We'll zoom her in from Texas when we do that. Take care. Bye, my love. Thanks, Ashley. Bye. One of the funniest things about the MAGA contingent for me is, like, this woman, they won, and they're still fucking crying about it. Like, they're still feeling like a victim.

I don't get it. I mean, the fact that anybody—for me, it's been almost mom's the word. But maybe, like Chelsea said, ain't nobody going to say nothing to me about voting for Trump. But, like, people are scared to say anything. I haven't heard anybody speak in Spanish in at least, what, since January. people scared to speak in Spanish I'm telling you they don't know what's going to fucking happen they sending people to El Salvador

that's from Maryland and shit I'm from Maryland next thing you know I'll be in El Salvador I mean it's a rough time you know what I mean and so she's fortunate this woman is fortunate that she has the luxury to concern herself with

the feelings of a Trump supporter I don't have that and this time what it means to be MAGA is to It means to be supporting white supremacy, you know, stopping a lot of stuff. It's very bad times for people, especially people of color. And I can't be playing around with anybody that's over there supporting that because that means you have no regard for my life or whatever I got going on. You want to do nothing but take from me. I can't be around that.

You're dangerous to me. You're a predator. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, I'm kind of like, I don't have time for it. I'm not talking. I just don't have time for that. It's too ugly out right now. It's too ugly.

And people are being, like, what's happening is unforgivable. It's disgusting. So, no, I'm not interested in hearing, especially MAGA, you know, like that. That's, like, another level of fuck off. Cedric, you're right, though. Who did any of this shit? Anyway, let's wrap it up. That was a long minisode.

It sure was. I feel like it's longer than a shower. Okay. Don't say that. That means you didn't enjoy me. I always enjoy you. Of course I do. I hate thinking about all of this stuff all the time.

I know you do. Why do you do it so well, though? You give good advice. The MAGA thing really upsets me. It fucking brings me down that people are so fucking far removed. The idea that somebody's too liberal and the idea that being open-minded and aware of the future is a bad thing. Saying yes to trans people is a bad thing. Like history has shown us over and over again, especially like there's this contingency of gay people who are not pro-trans.

And it's like, I find that. You got gay people who are racist. Listen, what I keep telling you is this, Chelsea. It's like this, right? This is a prime example. It's not you. You want to do certain things. You want the doubt to move.

But I keep telling you, we got to have these conversations because it's a lot of dumb motherfuckers out here that don't get it. And more importantly, the worst part is some of them get that what they're doing is racist or homophobic or all of this shit. And they just don't care because it's not them. Do you understand? People are very selfish. And that's why the conversations have to keep being had. And yeah, where's you out? I get it.

You get tired. I'm your, hey, I'm doing my part. I'm not over here being a racist asshole. But imagine now you got to live as a person that has to navigate around people with mental disorders of race, being racist. That's uncomfortable as a motherfucker. That is a mental disorder. That's a great, great way to frame it. Racism is a mental disorder.

If you really believe that. Wait, stop laughing. It's true. It's fucking mental disorder. If you really believe someone who has a different skin color is less valuable, that is a mental disorder. It's a mental disorder. Okay. We got to go.

She's starting to yell. Goodbye. Bye. Bye. Bye. So I added a couple of new dates. I'm not on tour yet but I added a couple of dates just because I felt like we need a little bit more laughter and a little bit more medicine for the end of the year and I was wrapping things up but

I thought maybe let me do a couple more so I'm adding three more dates in addition to my Vegas residency I'm doing uh West Hampton Beach August 21st I'm headlining the Rochester Fringe Comedy Festival September 13th and I will be in Napa on October 3rd so those will be my last dates of the year. Do you want advice from Chelsea? Write into DearChelseaPodcast at gmail.com. Find full video episodes of Dear Chelsea on YouTube by searching at Dear Chelsea Pod. Dear Chelsea is edited and engineered by Brad Dickert, executive producer Catherine Law. And be sure to check out our merch at ChelseaHandler.com. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for

anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Did you hear the new episode of the Hey Jonas podcast? We are at D23, so we'll see who stops by. The cast of Frozen stopped by.

Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Idina Menzel. I auditioned for Frozen. What? For Kristoff. They said, okay, what are you going to be singing today? I said, I don't know. That must have been why you didn't get it. Well, you probably won.

Plus, John Stamos, Hayden Christensen from Star Wars, and more. And I guess I can share that, uh... No way. Listen to the latest episode of Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook.

Each week, we talk to someone in show business and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time, and no one gets mad at their publicist for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Ben Stiller, and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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