Mention It All - Witnessing The Summer House Scandal, RHOA's New Era, & Why Bravo Runs The Culture Ft. Symone Sanders-Townsend

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

On this week’s Tuesday episode, Dylan is joined by Bravo superfan MS NOW’s Symone Sanders Townsend to break down the latest Summer House chaos involving West, Amanda, and Ciara, plus why the fallout has become such a huge conversation online. They also get into The Real Housewives of Atlanta return, The Real Housewives of Rhode Island getting messy fast, and why Bravo continues to shape culture in ways that go far beyond reality TV. They also talk about Bravo in DC, the overlap between politics and pop culture, and why reality TV remains one of the most revealing mirrors of how we live now. Go to the BravoByBetches YouTube page to watch full length episodes every Tuesday & Friday: Youtube.com/@BravoByBetches Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Exclusions apply for licenses, see Home Depot.com slash license numbers. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Mentioned-All podcast. I am thrilled to be joined by today's guest. She is an author, a political expert. You can see her on MS Now's The Weeknight and Clock It with Simone and Eugene. But most importantly, for our purposes, she's also a Bravo expert. Please welcome Simone Sanders Townsend. Greetings.

How are you doing? I am, well, you know what? The world seems to be okay today, so I'm good. For one more day, we can keep talking about Bravo. One more day. We made it through. We got to take a day by day. day at this point. The train made it here. I'm curious for you, you live in D.C. What is the like

Bravo atmosphere in D.C.? Do you hear people talking about it when you're out and about? Like, do people love Potomac? Like, what's the, what's the line? I mean, it's crazy because obviously we know, like I know Wendy. I know Candice. Candice is a good friend of mine. Okay. So, um, uh, Candice Diller Bassett, who used to be on a Potomac. So I just think we know, like I know Jazeel. We see we, we, we, everybody knows everybody. So you see. So you see. people out. But I mean in D.C., it's really, people talk about like there's two D.C. Like there's Washington and then there's D.C. And so there's like the Hill and the White House stuff and whatnot. And then there's real D.C. You know, where the go-go and everything is. So I oftentimes

see many of the housewives out when I'm out in like real D.C. as well I argue. Yeah, like fun D.C. Yeah, fun D.C. Have you ever been like on the Amtrak with the Potomac Housewives? I have not been on the Amt. Do they? Do they? They take the Amtrak? They take the, I think it's like Asella vibes when they come to New York. Really? Well, you know what? You know why?

Because the flights are unreliable, okay? Guardia is not given reliability when we want to make it somewhere. Yeah. Well, you know, we do what we can? I'm glad you made it here today. I'm happy to be here. You know how they gave Elon Musk Doge in the government? They should have just gave him Amtrak job.

I wouldn't have complained about that one because he actually could have got it together. Well, you've had an interesting last couple of weeks. It was crazy. Because you were on Watch What Happens Live the last week of March. Yes. And who were you on Watch What Happens Live next to? My friend Eugene, who I'm on the podcast with, he was at the bar. And West was sitting next to me.

It was just so crazy. And then a week later, he and Amanda are like, we're dating. And I'm just like, wait, we were just on the podcast. Little did we know. We were just on the set. What's going on? What was, I mean, first of all, like doing Watch What Happens Live. It's such a fun show.

so amazing. Andy was so great. It was my second time. Yes. So it was good. And West was so nice. It was lovely to meet him. And, you know, I was on that week. It was right after the episode where I think it was the episode of the week before where they had that very, frankly, very illuminating dinner party conversation where KJ on Summer House where KJ and Mia and Sierra talked about just as being black people on the show. And Sierra has often talked about being the first black woman on Summer House where the cast is like mostly white. And I thought the conversation was, I was shocked that it happened. I thought the conversation was amazing to happen.

I thought that everyone at the table from West to Kyle, they all showed up in a way that I think when you have those kind of conversations with friends, especially if they don't, you know, share your experience. Obviously, you know, three black people sit at the table having a conversation with mostly white people. Yeah. They could not identify, but they met each other where they, they met each other where they, they were. And I thought it was a beautiful conversation. And so we talked about that. And I even said to West, I'm like, oh, it seems like you have, like, as you said, like, you've learned.

Like, it was great. And then Andy asked about the Amanda rumors. And he's essentially like, it's crazy. It's not happening. I'm showing her the streets. And I was just like, oh, so is that just your home girl? Because that's what people want to know. And he's like, yeah. But it wasn't. And so, you know, formerly in my life, I was a comms professional. I worked in the White House. and I worked on campaigns. And the comms girl in me, when I saw the statement that was literally the week later, we were literally on the Tuesday before, the comms girl in me was like, oh, you shouldn't have lied to Andy.

We should have just told, we should have came prepared to tell it then. Like the comms girl in me was thinking that. I don't know what transpired. I mean, obviously the reunion is going to be taped like what, on April 15th? Something like that, yeah. April 15th. So we will see soon. And I know Andy has questions.

But it is, I don't know what transpired in the week. Obviously, like there was a groundswell that made them feel as though that they had to come out and say something. But I was really thinking just about like Sierra in the situation, frankly, and Kyle. But really Sierra because she had just talked so publicly about how it was all making her feel. And then now we've got this joint statement. And it's like, oh, did y'all get my girl a heads up? Well, in the particular, like the, the, an angle, a part of that conversation was specifically around her experience of being a black woman dating white men in a public space and the kind of baggage that comes with that and feedback that she gets from people on everything she does. Like she literally said they're going to, they said you let him play you on national TV.

You let this white man play you on national TV. And if they said that last season, child, well, after this statement, I just can't. can imagine just how she is feeling. And I saw Andy, I think he was asked about it on one of the radio shows he was doing because people are like, Andy, you knew. And I was sitting next to Andy that night. He did not know.

He was just as inquisitive as I was, child. It's like, well, are you? What is going on with the rumors? But he said something that I think is always very important to remember when we're talking about the folks that we watch on Bravo or like the politicians that, you know, I talk about often. times on TV, even the president. These are real people with real lives. And so while this is all

people are like, what is the team? What is going on? These are real people with real lives. And I think this is really affecting everyone in the scenario. But frankly, when I saw it, I thought about like, damn, Sierra, she just can't catch a break. Yeah. It's, it's such a, it's a tricky thing because when you are on a show like this, obviously you're signing up for these aspects of your life to be storyline and to be part of a show. But then that can manifest in so many different directions where it's like, okay, I didn't, I didn't realize that was going to be the thing. It's what reality TV is. And it's like the beauty of the curse of reality television, right? Like, we all love it. We watch it. Like, I, on our podcast episode this week, actually, as we were talking about it, we, Eugene and I talk to a guy named Jeff Bennett.

And he has this book about the 90s and comedy in the 90s and how black sitcoms and episodes really episodes and black art really. exploded in the 90s and it the 90s was like the heyday for creativity and we talked about how there were all these options back in the 90s and if you look now it's like ah we've got what abid elementary we've there's some some scripted things like the pit but the pit is not a show run by black creators um but then there's reality television and we people love reality TV why because it's like a sometimes like a train wreck we can't look away some we like the drama we like engaging. I think we like dropping into other people's lives. I love to watch the housewives.

I like my housewives fabulous, rich and on a vacation, on a yacht somewhere. I love to Miami girls. But the flip side to that is these are real people's lives. And so when there is drama, when there's things that trend, when there's salacious storylines, like coming out of Summer House or

some of the things that are currently being discussed on the Real Housewives of Rhode Island, it's like, ah, this is great TV, but also, damn, because these are real people's lives. Yeah. The Rhode Island is so interesting because obviously that show has just started in the last couple weeks. And they're digging into some hefty material in episode one and two. And it's unusual to have a show where after two episodes, I feel like I know something pretty deep about each person's marriage.

Like there usually isn't that kind of amount of stuff to dig through. And so it's interesting to think about, okay, if you've been on a show 10 years, obviously we go through ups and downs. These women have only been in the public eye for like one week. And I'm like, are you all ready for this? Right. Well, and I mean, honestly, it is, again, it goes back to the gift and the curse. The thing about the women on Rhode Island is that they've all known each other. Like they literally, many of them grew up together.

If you just watched the first episode, many are like, oh, I've known her since high school, or she used to, I used to date her cousin or, you know, we. They've just, they've all, they have known each other for 10 plus years at least, sometimes 15, some people 20, 30 years. And when you know somebody that long, it is comfortable. And I think the thing about reality television is I would never do reality TV. I would never want a camera following me around at my best and worst moments, like to be able to catch me any time. Because we all have bad days, right?

We all have, there's all things that maybe we wouldn't want plastered on the front pages of the New York Times or, you know, trending on social media. But when you sign up for reality television, essentially that's what you're signing up for. And I think the folks on Rhode Island, we know so much because they're so comfortable. And it's like, now we love that you're being so transparent. That's part of what makes reality television gold because it is real. It's not scripted. You feel like you feel like you're in the room, right?

That's why people love your podcast. It's like, oh, I'm in the room with you. Like, this is great. It's like, I've known you for forever. But it's like, I'm not you for forever. But it's like, well, did you think about how talking on camera about the fact that you are dating a man that literally has a girlfriend whenever he goes to Miami and now you have a boyfriend too? Have you talked about the fact that y'all are just going to try to out this lady and ask her, is she having an affair on camera? I'm like, what is going on?

Is something in the water? Have you all really thought this through? I don't know. So maybe we'll have a blockbuster season of Rhode Island and then these girls are going to be like, oh, my God. I hope so. We will not be back. But maybe they will be. So we'll see.

I think they'll be back. I mean, it's good television. It is very good television. And maybe they resolve some things. So we don't know. We just have to keep watching. I'm curious for you taking it back. Do you remember, like, what was your Bravo origin story?

Was there a show that you saw first that kind of pinged for you of this is something I want to lock in on? I think it was maybe the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Just because it was, I mean again, look, I, back in the heyday of Atlanta, like when, and in the early scene, when there was Nini and Kim, it was just,

it was, it was real, it was fabulous, it was a little raunchy. It was like, oh, what is this? But also, I kind of like it. And I think that's what got me, and frankly, a lot of people hooked. Remember, there was Atlanta, and then there was Orange County and then now there's obviously,

a billion friend. It feels like a billion franchises of the housewives. We could get the real house wives of, I'm from Omaha, Nebraska, maybe they're going to do the real housewives of the Midwest child. I'm from St. Louis. We see each other. Okay, right there.

The real housewives of the Midwest is popping up. So I just think it's a good escape. Like, think about it. Yeah. I have worked in politics for the first part of my career. And, you know, there's good days and there's bad days in politics. Now I work in the news. and I host the show every night.

The news is terrible, okay? It's terrible. There are terrible things happening all and more all across the world. It feels very chaotic. But in the midst of that chaos, we still have to find the joy and find the whimsy. And for a lot of people, myself included, some of that joy in whimsy is like, oh, let me watch something that has nothing to do with what I do every day. And that's reality television.

I don't know if there's anything more rewatchable than some of those seasons of Atlanta. Oh my God. Season 7, season 6, the ones with Claudia and the Bob. It's so good. And I see, I feel like every single day,

I see something from that show going around on TikTok, on Instagram reels, or, you know, whatever platform you look on, somebody is always posting Atlanta clips. And I will watch it every single time. Every time.

It's influencing the culture. Uh-huh. The thing about why we love reality television so much, One, I think it's a little bit of a mirror for us because honestly, you watch these shows and, well, everybody doesn't have a yacht, okay, or like multiple Bergen bags, or we're going on trips to Italy.

The dynamics in your, in the friendships that you see, those are real. Those are real, and people can identify with that. But I also just think that what the Housewives franchise specifically have done, has done, and Atlanta, for example, it is really driven the culture.

Yeah. It has, it is, they are, it's a cultural phenomenon. And so it pops up everywhere. You got politicians now that want to go on. Watch what happens live with Andy. People are quoting Bravo from the floor, from the well of the capital because it's literally everywhere. So it's a takeover. Yeah.

There have been some of those moments like a couple seasons ago on, Married to Medicine. Kamala Harris was on there talking to Dr. Jackie about, you know, women's health and all that. Like things like that where it's like, oh, there's a real. aspect of this that is bigger than just, you know, seven women fighting on TV. Right. And it's, it's cool to see the different kind of permutations of that. Exactly. And how it pops up in our everyday lives.

Again, I just think culture and politics is so intertwined. Culture actually leads everything that we do. It culture, culture colors what we think is cool, what we think is acceptable. Hell, there are so many things. There are, have you seen all the thought pieces about the Sierra Amanda West situation? Like, there's a, there are. cultural deep dives on that. There's a racial unpacking on, I think I saw it on New York MAG.

So these things that are happening in these spaces where we go to find joy and outlet, where we go to detach, they are not divorced from our everyday lives. Actually, it is coloring how we exist in the real world, which is kind of crazy. Yeah, and I think with Real Housewives, especially, like, all of the different women that have been on over the years and all the different things that they've gone through on the show, whether it's something like, you know, fertility struggles or, you know, dealing with parents getting older, like things like that where it's not necessarily the main, you know, drama that you tune into the show for, but it's those kind of extra things on the edges that it's like,

oh, that's a real, like, human experience. Yes. That maybe we don't see on every other show. Exactly. And that people can identify with. Like, there are so many people that are dealing with an aging parent. There are so many. I know a lot of people who are dealing with like the fertility issues.

Now, I don't know people flying to Ghana, okay, to get the, to try to get their eggs. That was, that was a new one for me. Okay. But you know what? You know? You got to do what you got to do. There are folks that are dealing with, I think back to Salt Lake City. And, well, I'm really thinking about Jen Shaw nowadays because, you know, she just got out.

And, you know, she was in the same facility that Gilein Maxwell is in. I heard. Yes, yes. And so now Congress actually wants to talk to Jen Shaw. You know, the House Oversight Committee is like, we have questions. Have you spoken to Geelaine? So we'll see if she gets to pose. I would love to see Jen's congressional hearing fit.

She would decked out. Decked out. Played down, okay? So we'll see if we get it. Okay? We see if we get the tape deposition. But I think back to, just, I mean, even when all those episodes, chronicling her, like going through the court case process.

And then she went to jail and, like, her, you know, you still have a family that still has to survive. All the women being like, what the hell happened here? Like, these are all things that, like, crazy things happen in the world every day. And sometimes you know people and you're like, oh, my God, I had no idea. And then watching the conversation. So I do think that reality television, maybe why we love it so much, is because there's a, because there is, in many space and places, there's a lot of truth to it. There's a lot of glitz and glam and extra drama on top of it, but there's a lot of truth to it.

Yeah, and we're drawn to it. It's the balance of that, like, human element with the kind of ridiculous. Well, like a moth to a flame. It's like, oh, my God, what is going on? So good, so good, so good. Everything you want for summer is at Nordstrom Rack stores now and up to 60% off. Stock up and save on the brands you love like Vince, Sam Edelman, Frame and Free People. Join the Norty Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more.

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You go all the way back with Atlanta. Now we're in season, whatever season we're in, just started. How do you feel about Atlanta these days? I like that they added Kay Michelle. I really like her. I think she was, I thought she was a good addition. We're going to have to see how, now,

the streets say that this season is amazing. And from that first episode, I feel like it's going to be a very good season. It is, I think great seasons and good reality television is when people are just being themselves, when they are literally living their actual real lives. And that's what, again, I like my housewives, living their real lives and fabulous, okay?

So if we're going to see, and we saw Portia on that first episode, living her real life and her marital home child, having a dinner party with a dates in Simon's house. Like that's great. That's her real life. Right. It's messy in a way that is like, okay, we're going with it. Okay.

We're going with it. I mean, it is her house now. She got it. She got it. So I'm excited about watching Atlanta. You know, it's what I watch on Sunday nights. Yeah. I think Kay Michelle is such an interesting addition because we've had housewives that are well

known outside of the show. but for somebody who's so well known from a different reality franchise especially, I think that's an interesting thing because some people are very protective of like, I don't want it to feel like love and hip hop or I don't want, you know, kind of mixing the things too much. But I'm like, if it, we can try a different thing.

If it works, it works. And I just think obviously like last year, Cowboy Carter, Beyonce was huge. And I remember like I remember, like, I remember seeing a lot of the discourse about black women and country music. And Kay Michelle is she wanted to be a country artist first. And I saw an interview that she did some months ago about how that the industry at the time said, well, you know, country is not.

We can't break you out in country. You got to do R&B. And then to hear her talk about that on that first episode, I'm like, oh, look at this full circle. So I think that there are many dimensions, frankly, and like layers to people that I don't think we necessarily saw on like love and hip-and-hip. pop, if you will. So, like, now, Kaye Michelle is a country artist with a, with a husband. So we're going to see. We're going to see. I know. I'm interested to see kind of how we cover her music, like, in the show, because we've had a lot of housewives doing music. Yes, we have. At varying levels of... But some that can't sing, but some that can't, Kay Michelle can actually sing,

okay? She's an actual artist. Like, Candy was an actual artist. Exactly. I mean, it has been crazy to see like all the things that Candy has done. Yeah. In the time she was on the show and since then like... On Broadway now doing fear to her herself. Like it is. And you know, I've met Candy a couple times. She's and she has come on.

I've had many different shows at MS now. And on one of the first shows that I had, she came on my show before. Like she's so nice, so sweet, so smart and so brilliant. And so I think that people who, again, is not for me. I don't know. Would you ever do reality television? No.

Okay. That's okay. I'm not, okay, I'm not alone here. I've watched way too much of this to ever. Exactly. Never letting these cameras.

I'm like, now I don't necessarily, I don't necessarily relate to all the situations I'm watching, but I know enough to know that I don't want to. You don't want this. You know, you don't want these problems. Yeah,

like me, when I sit down and talk into the, the microphone, that's enough for me. That's enough. Exactly. So it's just like, I think candy,

and there are other housewives, but there's a good, and I feel like there's a whole, maybe I read a story about this recently how that the Bravo platform has become a way that if you play your cards right you can elevate your brand you can you can parlay it into

other things and I think Candy is a very good example of how yes she was somebody well before I mean she used what was her the platform that she had on Bravo to then spin it off into other things she herself had many different spinoffs heck yeah she had a spinoff about the The tour had a spin off about the restaurant, the restaurant, had a spin off about the wedding.

Ski trip or something. Come on now. The spins were spinning. But all of those things are revenue makers, money makers. It elevates the other things that she's doing. There are people that went to that restaurant just because they saw it on Bravo. They didn't know it existed prior to that. Maybe they weren't ever going to go.

And so that is, I think, the beauty of these platforms right now, reality television is you can use it to, you know, elevate whatever it is that you are doing. But it could also, you know, tear it down. There are real examples of how there are people that, you know, maybe came on and had nice, regular jobs before they started. And now they no longer have those jobs because what are you doing on television? Yeah, it's, it is hard because it's like when you sign up for a show like that, in theory, you know that it could be a one and done.

Yeah. It could be a big opportunity. it could be a small thing, but it is, it's like really hard to go back after you've done it. Like, I feel like that used to happen with like people would go on The Bachelor. And it's like, okay, so I'm just going to be an influencer now. And it's like, does the, can the market hold 30 new bachelor influencers over here? Do we need 30 new Bachelor influencers? Like, is the Bachelor influencing actually paying your bills?

Right. So then it's like, okay, you have 400,000 followers on Instagram, but maybe you should go back to your little marketing job. Yeah, yeah. Or maybe you should have kept that little marketing job and not been out here thinking of delusions of grandeur. It is, again, I think when people decide, you know, it's like when you decide to start a podcast or like when I decided to say like,

okay, this is what I want to do in my next iteration of my career. Like I want to do television. I want to do the news. Like that comes with responsibility. I do the news. So, you know, I'm not out at the club on a Thursday or going live on Instagram. of smoking a hookah and drinking in a section, right? Because first of all, I'm sleep, I'm at home.

But also, all that's happening is just not on life. Well, well. But I mean, like, truly, like, what in the world would I mean? How does that comport with what I do every day to pay my bills? And so I think when people decide to go on these platforms, it's like, well, what are you doing this? What do you want to get out of it? And then how does this comport with the rest of your life?

Like, are you going to lose your job for your 15 minutes of fame? If you're going to wreck all of this other stuff that you have going on for an opportunity, an idea of an opportunity, how big does the opportunity have to be? Exactly. Exactly. And in a moment of like the thing about culture right now is it is, and Jeff Bennett said this on our podcast this week, we don't have one large monoculture anymore. Like in the, I think, think about like what's the last thing that? that we collectively as like a society we're like doing together. You could think the Super Bowl is like that. Like we all tune in to see the Super Bowl.

Maybe the space launch a couple weeks ago, like last week. It's like, oh, okay, the space launch is happening. Like as an American culture where like we are doing this together. Scandal when scandal was on. It's like we are live tweeting this thing together. Maybe Gray's as well. But like there's, we're so fractured. And so there's not one big mom.

culture, there's a lot of little mini cultures, right? So there's, so, so Bravo is a, is a, is a universe. Reality television is a, is a universe. And there's mini cultures within that. Well, are you gonna like 15 minutes of fame? You're 15 minutes in this mini culture. Is that worth it for all of these other things you have going on? It could be or it couldn't.

Right. It's not, it's not the 90s and you're on friends and then you're Jennifer Aniston and you're the most famous person on our forever. Like, Friends was a scripted series. Like, people out here thinking Friends was real life. It's like the people that are like, oh, I just, I'm thinking, I'm watching the West Wing, maybe West Wing was fake, Veepe is real life.

Like, what is wrong with y'all? Oh, my gosh. No, it's so real because I think like with Bravo, it is this, it's a niche thing that has been really effectively maximized into, it's, there's a show on every night. You watch it on Peacock every day. there's Bravo Khan, there's these business ventures, all of this stuff. You feel like it can be a whole ecosystem. And I feel like the kind of like the news and politics world maybe has some similarities

where it's like you can you can make that your entire life, your entire feed on social media, everything you're watching on TV. Or you can also just like not pay, you can not look at it at all. You can not. Exactly. But whether we're looking at it or not, things are still happening, right? So whether people were keyed into the news this week or not, like, Iran was still

like front and center. Yeah. The gas prices are still very, very high. Like, a war is still raging now. They say there's ceasefire. We will see. Okay. Their bombs apparently were dropping last night and this morning.

So, well, to be continued. But whether you're watching the news or not, that's still happening, whether you're aware of, I think the whole Summer House saga is a very good example. So many people online are like, I'm not. watching Summerhouse, but I have a thought. Whether you're watching it or not, this thing has seeped, like it is seeped out in some way, shape, or form it, it's affecting you. And so, yeah, I do think that, and, you know, at MS Now, for example, like the viewers are very, like, I was coming out of the train today and somebody, I'm getting off the train, I had a hat on,

shot, I was wrapped up, and I'm walking up in a man, I was like, hey, Simone, how you doing? Like, how can you see me? But the viewers, the people who watch, Our shows are, these are very loyal viewers. These are folks that, you know, will watch from the morning until the night. They see you every day. Literally. So it's like when I meet people, they're like, oh, I feel like I know you. That's how people feel about a lot of the folks on these reality television shows,

especially on many of these Bravo shows. And so that's why they can do a Bravo con, right? Well, for the MS Now viewers, like we've had these like democracy summits where people have literally paid to come and see the talent. Like, it's, it's, which kind of feels like a Bravo con. But there are these many cultures that have crept up and people are. Yeah. You know, building so many different things around us.

So I don't know. Did you see that somebody asked Zoran about Summerhouse? No. What did they ask the mayor? He was like, oh, like, have you heard about what's, it was like a walk and talk kind of thing? What are you saying? And he said, he said, I would just say, uh, thank you to see our. for saving lives because I heard she's a nurse.

Correct. And then the guy was like, and what do you think about Kyle Cook? And he said, brother, I don't know who that is. It's like, period. Period. You know what? The staffer did their job.

The staffer made sure he knew. Thank the nurse. Okay, thank the nurse. Shout out to that black lady that's going through something. Keep it going. Shout out to the staffers. Okay, for the mayor.

Yes. Kyle Cook, nope. Mayor, you don't need to get into the detail. There's one talking point. That's all you need. Exactly. But again, it seems like in what universe is the mayor of New York being asked about this drama on Summerhouse? This one.

In this timeline, that is what's happening. Absolutely. I'm curious for you, working in the world of Washington and in D.C., what do you feel like is a misconception that people would have that are outside of that sphere about working in the news, about working in politics? Kind of the same way with reality TV people, you know, want to know the behind the scenes. Like, what has surprised you or what do you think would surprise other people? I mean, I just think people think like the news is like so glamorous and that the politics is, that politics really is like the West Wing when it is actually more like VEP. And so when these things that are happening at the White House, like, when I worked at the White House,

I was like, oh, my God, after a month, I'm like, oh, this is Black Veep. Because I work for Vice President Kamala Harris. I'm like, this is Black Veep. Okay, this is Veep is very real. And I think that it is like glam, I think it is dramatized to the point where folks really do believe that like there's these lofty things that are happening. And then there's some, there's these forces that'll keep these bad things from going on. Literally, it is, for lack of a better term, it's all made up when it comes to the politics. Like it's, it is, it, who the president is matters and who the president has around them matters.

And it's literally a bunch of conversations and the conversations are what becomes policy. It's all Congresses. Congress is a bunch of conversations that become write-ups and bills that become laws. Like that's literally what it is. A campaign is a bunch of people sitting at a table saying, okay, I want to be governor or mayor or a president. And this is the message I want to have. And then a bunch of people at the table decide, okay, based on this message, this is how we're going to raise money. This is how we're going to turn people out at the polls. And this is how we're going to talk about it to people. These are kind of ads we're going to put on. It's all just a conversation. Yeah.

I think it's, yeah, the idea of it being like lofty, it's easy to look and say, oh, it's this, you put it on a pedestal or whatever. But at the end of the day, it's like for most of the people who work there, it's like, they're just waiting on their direct deposit. Yeah. You know the people in Congress, the staffers in Congress get paid once a month. That's crazy to me. They get a check once, they get a direct deposit once a month.

The staff in Congress get paid once a month. When I worked at the White House, when you work for the vice president, half of the vice president, some of the vice president's staff is on a congressional payroll because the VP is the president of the Senate. You know, I'm like, oh, this is how y'all getting around the finances at the way. Even at the White House, they're getting crafty with the finances. AP gov. Okay, okay, clock it, clock it. And I was, I didn't realize that like the other, we had to talk about with the people that are on the congressional payroll side, can they get paid on the regular, on the White House scale?

Like, can they get their checks twice a month? And I'm like, wait, the people in Congress only get paid once a month? That's crazy, right? And so you think about like those, all the times that we're like, Congress is working late. Well, not just as senators, but there are staff people in there working very late. When it comes to the news, we do not get paid once a month. We get paid multiple times a month, like regular people.

I want to be very clear. We love the news and how we get paid. It's also like there's a bunch of work that goes into what goes on television. You know, nowadays, look, it's a lot of people that, out here who want to pick up a microphone, put the camera up, and they're like, I am doing the news, I am reporting. Girl, you are just reading what the AP wrote up. Right.

You are reading what MS now reported. Or, to be honest, chat GPT. Well, well, which is very problematic. Chad GPT needs a fact checker, okay? Like, we just going to go with what Sam Altman has to say. So I just, I think that when something happens in the world, people do still turn on the television, right, to see what's going on. And the news, like we have a lot of, like, it's hard.

Like, there's a lot of work that goes into what you see on television for like a five-minute hit, a three-minute hit, or like a one-hour show. But there are so many people online nowadays who are like, traditional media is out, new media is in. And it's like, okay, no, it's not that traditional media is out and new media is in. It's that the ecosystem is changing. Right. But, like, at the end of the day, y'all are citing what the news people are trying.

doing. Right. That it's like the information at the core of it is either correct or it's not. And to arrive at the correct information most of the time, having those resources is important. It's important. And I mean, there are a lot of, we've spoken to a bunch of creators like Harry Sisson. I don't know if you know Harry Sisson.

Harry Sisson, he's like a political creator because there's a whole thing now. It's political creators. They got a whole ecosystem. It's a mini culture. And he said that he doesn't, you know, when he's. He does his videos. He doesn't put anything up that hasn't been reported by like MS now or the New York Times or AP.

But there are other people out there that'll just, you know, like last weekend, a bunch of people with huge accounts were suggesting that Donald Trump was dead. And I was just like, well, do y'all, I was looking like, whoa. I didn't see that on my ass. I think that would have came through in the work slack, okay, for the real news. Like what? But they were trafficking in it online, on Twitter, on Instagram. I saw it on Twitter.

I saw it on TikTok. And I saw it on threads. And it's like these people with huge accounts are spreading this like misinformation. And it's like, we got to be accurate. So like, fine. You want to spread a rumor about something you think happened on the reunion show for the, for the latest housewives is one thing. But you can't spread a rumor about whether the president of the United States is alive or not.

That's crazy. Right. That's insane. Yeah. Keep the rumors to who's hooking up with who. Yeah. Or not because these are real people's lives. So true.

So true. Good perspective. Thank you so long. You know, you know, just here to bring it full circle. Well, I love to get to chat with people that are sort of outside of the reality TV sphere because I think it's good to kind of keep that perspective of like, this is one box and there's all these other boxes. but the way that they connect can be so interesting. The way that they connect can be interesting. And again, like, it is driving the Summer House saga is an example.

It is driving everything we do. Our world is increasingly more interconnected. So why we don't have a monoculture anymore and you literally can, you can self-select what you want to see. So you can only see all the Bravo things. You can only see all the news. You can see none of it. And if that's the case, I don't know what people have in their feeds in.

Because, like, if you don't have the news or Bravo, I don't know what you're doing. But you can. It's out there. It's just AI slop. AI slop. Okay. SORA videos. SOR AI videos. It's insane. But it is, we are all interconnected. And what is happening in these cultural spaces, it matters. And it is coloring what the people in charge from the president of the United States all the way down to like the news people to the folks in Congress. Somebody had to tell Zoramam Dami about the summer.

house drama. He had to get a briefing. And that, that is America. Well, Bravo is great, but I think people could maybe use a little more news. So tell everyone. I think people need a lot more news. Tell everyone where they can get the news from you. You can get the news from me at the weeknight on MS Now, 7 p.m. Eastern Monday through Friday. Also, you can tune into a podcast with my colleague and friend Eugene Daniels and I have called Clocket. New episodes drop every Thursday, wherever you get your podcast literally everywhere, but also on YouTube. It's a friend. MS. dot now slash clock it.

So we talk about all the things. We have not discussed. Everybody's like, what is your, this is I think the first time I gave my hot take on the summer house situation. So, you know, people have been asking me, but who knew? Who knew?

So we get into all the things, the news, the pop culture of it all. So tune in. Amazing. Well, go check it out. Thank you so much, Simone, for being here. Thank you for having me. And thank you, everyone, for listening.

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