Love Trapped - Introducing: Everyone Knows But Me
Episode Date: September 9, 2026Love Trapped listeners, we're excited to share a special preview of Episode 1: The One With My Dad's Confession from the podcast Everyone Knows But Me. When she was just 17, Holly Brown’s dad wa...s dying of cancer. It looked like life couldn’t get more traumatic, until her dad dropped a bombshell….or two bombshells, really: twin brothers that her entire family kept secret. She was the only one who didn’t know they existed. After his death left her with more questions than answers, Holly sets out to uncover how a secret this big could be hidden, and why the sitcoms that raised her were often the only way to make sense of a life stranger than TV. You can listen to Everyone Knows But Me on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hey, love trapped listeners.
Today we wanted to share a sneak peek of another podcast we think you'll love.
It's called Everybody Knows But Me.
And like Love Trapped, it was named one of Apple Podcasts' best shows of 2026 so far.
Hosted by comedian Holly Brown, the series kicks off with her real-life family secret.
At 17 years old, while her father was dying of cancer, he confessed that he had secretly fathered six-year-old twins.
twins that everybody else in Holly's family already knew about.
Everybody but her.
Now, Holly sets out to figure out how her entire family kept a secret that big,
to meet her twin brothers,
and find out what happens when she starts sharing some long-held family secrets of her own.
Everybody Knows But Me is also steeped in the backdrop of sitcom nostalgia.
Holly grew up on TV sets,
while her dad worked behind the scenes on some of her own.
the biggest shows of the era. And every episode opens inside the fictional sitcom version of her
life. It's like true crime meets 90s nostalgia. Here's everybody knows but me. Did you ever feel
like your life was a TV show? If millions of people were tuning in every Friday night to see
what kind of crazy antics you and your family and friends were getting into, do you think they'd be
watching a sitcom or a drama? I know.
know what you're probably thinking right now. You're probably saying to yourself,
uh, Holly, life's not that simple. Sometimes it's hysterically funny and sometimes it's fucking horrifying.
That's me, by the way, I'm Holly. Holly Brown, nice to meet you. And trust me when I say,
I agree with you. But I hope you won't think it's cliche when I also say that growing up,
I genuinely believed my life had to be scripted. I desperately wanted it to be a
a sitcom so badly. I mean, I was the daughter of a man who literally helped build sitcom worlds for a
living. Growing up in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley in the 90s, show business was part of our
physical reality, something you could come face to face with every day, especially since my dad, Mark,
worked behind the scenes on the kind of shows that made families look perfect, or at least
perfectly dysfunctional.
I bought a starters pistol.
And there's no need to get snippy.
Accidents happen, you know.
Oh, I'm sorry, was I snippy?
I didn't realize it was too much to ask.
I did not be gunplay in my living room.
I always assumed that's where my intense love of sitcoms came from.
Those tidy 30-minute universe is full of love, lessons,
and the kind of laughter that only exists because a producer is holding up a sign,
telling a live studio audience how to react.
What do you think of me now?
sitcoms didn't just play in the background of my childhood, though.
They consumed it.
My dad worked his way up through Hollywood,
from being a best boy,
and no, that's not a tiny little groomsman in a wedding.
Then he paid his dues in various other roles behind the camera,
eventually establishing himself as the lead man in the art department.
And as a Hollywood-obsessed kid,
I loved being on set with him and going to tapings,
roaming the Paramount Backlot felt like a dream, filled with recognizable sets and celebrities just existing like normal.
I thought it was so cool that my dad played basketball with George Clooney and chatted with Michael Keaton like it was nothing.
But more importantly, he got me original art from the Rugrats.
The Rugrats!
And Salem Sabre Hagen's paw print signature from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Salem, is this a desperate cry for help?
No, this is.
Help!
I'm running out of air.
Zap it off and give me mouth to mouth.
I mean, these kinds of things made me feel pretty special.
Different from other kids.
In my house, our furniture was mostly props from Frazier sets,
a pair of bar stools, a wooden hutch, our dining room table.
I'd sip my chocolate milk from the same cafe nervosa cup as Frazier Crane and think,
See?
My life is a TV show.
But as I got older,
I started to wonder if maybe it wasn't that I loved sitcoms because my dad helped create them.
Maybe I loved them because I needed to believe my life could become one.
That this world I was living in, the one filled with intense sickness and screaming matches,
where pain pills and silent prayers for someone to step in and save us were all conveniently off camera.
It all felt so unbelievably cruel and absurd that it had to be cooked up in a writer's room.
Because if it were scripted, maybe it could be rewritten.
Maybe it could still have a happy ending.
When you stripped away the props that filled our house, the autograph book signed by my TGIF heroes,
the golf cart rides around the studio lot as a kid, you'd actually see that my life was anything but wholesome family fun.
In reality, the worst things that could happen always did.
But just like the spotless sitcom perfect sets my dad helped build,
everything looked fine from the outside.
And people saw what we wanted them to see.
Or maybe what they wanted to see.
Everybody wants to believe in a happy family, right?
After all, ours pretty much looked apart with all the tried and true stereotypes.
The kind mom, the older sister on the honor roll,
the rebellious middle child, the zany little brother,
and the perfect sitcom dad.
Tim the Toolman Taylor.
Danny Tanner.
Me, Ow.
Al Bundy.
Do I come to the hag shop by to you when you're working?
Carl Winslow.
Almost lost it there.
My old man could steal the show with the best of them.
He looked like a sitcom dad too.
Dark hair and broad shoulders,
a mischievous grin he flash right before doing something ridiculous.
His looks and likability,
Always reminded me of John Ritter growing up, if John had been just like a lot more rough around the edges.
Two glasses of white wine, please.
I'll have the same.
I think everyone sort of idolized your dad because he had such a strong personality.
He could take over any room he walked into, take over any party we were at.
He always wanted to perform.
He always wanted to entertain people.
And he did for years.
He just was somebody that I think a lot of people looked up to.
That's my Aunt KJ, one of my dad's four siblings who knew full well that in a family so big,
you had to have something special to stand out.
And that didn't end once he grew up and left home to make it on his own.
No matter what my dad did, his charm and imagination knocked you off your feet.
Take movie night
In our house
Movie Night wasn't just throwing on a VHS
It was an event
Before every movie we were served by our butler
Jeeves who bore a striking resemblance to my dad in a ponytail
With a British accent and a napkin draped over his arm
Dad like primed us to believe in everything though
Like we just lived in a kind of magical childhood
I don't remember what he did
I just remember the towel
and his British accent, and that he had, he had three kids, Jeeves had three kids in England
named Yisak, Lee Hall, and Suncar.
So, just pig Latin versions of our names, I guess.
I forgot about this.
And he would tell us all about his kids in England who were shockingly similar to us in so many ways, but British.
My older sister Casey, who you just heard, has some conflicting memories about exactly which version of him had the ponytail.
because after all, he did have multiple characters.
There was also Bob the bowler, a fast-talkin pro bowler from New York, New Jersey.
Eh, the region is fuzzy, but our local bowling alley was his stage.
You know, I think you think about it when you're an adult, and maybe people would be like,
what the heck, guys, have you really thought you had a butler that flew in from England?
But, like, you know, we would drive up to see our grandma and grandpa.
They lived like three hours north of us in California.
And you drive past the ocean along most of the way.
And our dad would be driving.
And like, I mean, this is, man was a trained actor.
The most convincing would be like, guys, guys, did you see that?
Did you see that?
And you'd be like, no, what?
It's like, I saw a mermaid tale out there.
I can't believe you all missed it again.
But, you know, you're living in a world where like mermaids are real, fairies are real.
Ferrys and sprites.
Sprites and Snickers.
Music was another part of his magic.
My dad was music in every sense of the word.
We would sit as a family and just wait for him to come home so he could play whatever new song he would.
Really?
About our family.
I mean, I know you've heard all the Christmas songs he wrote and all the Thanksgiving songs and all the wedding songs, but he always wrote very personal songs.
I wish that we had a recording of our wedding song.
And I had asked him way too late to please record it, but he was so sick he couldn't.
Yeah.
He's like, I can't.
I can't do it.
I can't do it justice.
But I, it was beautiful.
It was a beautiful song.
He'd played Beatle songs so well on his guitar that I thought he must have been in the band himself.
He could listen to a song on the radio, and without a single lesson, play the melody on a piano every time.
He wrote songs for his siblings and needs.
his weddings and recorded an entire album in our garage that I swear to you holds up.
Tell me this country's song doesn't slap.
I dare you.
Gather around my family and friends so dear.
Now sing you all a story if you'll lend me your ear.
About a midnight ride back some 50 years.
And you could say my grandpathy was Paul Revere.
Wherever we went, my dad carried an energy that pulled.
people in. He talked to every cashier, asking them about their day as though it were the most
interesting conversation he'd ever had. He'd tell stories about jumping onto moving trains,
driving his motorcycle off a bridge, and doing so many drugs that I'd say, Dad, oh my God! And you
believed him. Not because this story sounded real. I'm honestly not sure what was and what wasn't,
but because he did. Everybody put my mind.
dad on a pedestal. Everybody. He was just everybody's friend, everybody's hero. I mean, how could they
not see him that way? He was the epitome of main character energy. He was the funniest man I've ever
known, always committed to making someone laugh. And for the better part of the last decade,
I have been too. Time out. You know my name, but you don't really know me.
I'm a stand-of comedian who shares a little too much of herself on stage.
If you're asking yourselves much like I did, well, only urban outfitters, they don't have public restrooms.
Did you shoot your pants?
Well, no, idiots. I shit their pants.
But there are some things I've never been able to talk about openly.
Talking about them openly means I lose control of the narrative, which honestly scares the shit out of me.
because I spent most of my life with zero control over what was happening to me.
And really, it means I'm going to finally have to confront a bombshell that my dad dropped on me almost 15 years ago.
One I've been actively avoiding ever since.
A secret that forced me to reckon with what family secrets do to you
and how they quietly rearrange everything you thought you knew.
Okay, so this is the part in the sitcom where the theme song kicks in.
pull up in my cool-ass convertible in front of a totally nondescript suburban house,
I walk up to the door, my key hits the lock, and as it turns, the title slams onto the screen.
Everybody knows but me.
From next chapter podcasts and companion arts, this is episode one, the one with my dad's confession.
If you're seeking to try to understand the forensic science behind these cases that we hear about,
in the news. Body bags is where you need to turn. There's no fluff. We do a deep dive into
the forensics. Listen to body bags with Joseph Scott Morgan on America's number one podcast network,
Iheart. Open your free IHeart app and search BodyBags with Joseph Scott Morgan and start listening.
Hey, what's up? I'm Tony Gonzalez. And I'm October Gonzalez, but you can call me Toby. We want you to join us
on our new podcast, No Safe Words with October and Tony Gonzalez.
We get real about marriage, parenthood, sex, divorce,
and all the nitty-gritty stuff we all think about,
but just don't say out loud.
You're probably just going to be some rich guy,
and he's going to whisk you away.
Well, this is awkward.
Listen to No Safe Words with October and Tony Gonzalez
on the Iheart radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you get your podcast.
Let's go!
The countdown is on to the most talked-about music festival
on the planet.
Let's go crazy.
Our I Heart Radio
Music Festival.
Presented by Capital One.
September 18th and 19th
at T-Mobile Arena Las Vegas.
15 artists.
Two nights.
One stage.
Listen on I-Heart radio stations
across the country
and stream it live on Disney Plus
and Hulu.
BTS.
Benson Boone.
Cardi B.
Sierra.
Goo Goo Dolls.
Kenny Chesney.
Chesney.
Lany Wilson.
La Cerafim.
Major laser.
News Snoop Dog
The Smashing Pumpkins
Weezer
Zara Larson
A special performance by Breakout star
Stella Lefty
And never seen before artist's collaborations
You'll never see again
One wild weekend
Are you ready?
Buy your tickets now at AXS.com
Hi, I'm Michael and Perioli
I want to tell you about my new podcast, Underground Zero.
We're looking at the opportunity
of a lifetime for us and the other families.
It's about the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks.
What's in the tunnels?
Gobosh of Engage.
It could be worth half a billion.
Starring Steve Sharipa, Rea Brutzo, and me, Michael Imperioli.
How far you're prepared to go?
Depends how far you are.
Listen to Underground Zero on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
This is an I-Heart podcast.
Guaranteed Human.
