It’s a bittersweet day as I say goodbye to Reality of Reality. It feels fitting that this farewell is on the 5th anniversary of my podcast — which started as a fun whim with Jenny Daly and turned into over 200 episodes of interviews with the best in the business.  The why is simple: I’m just too busy with my core business to sustain the pace any longer. I realize that’s a lucky place to be — especially given how hard this last year has been for so many— and I don’t take it for...

Diona Vaughn Mankowitz is an Emmy nominated producer and casting director who founded Divergent Content in 2020. Soon after she founded the company, Ray Dotch, an Emmy nominated Executive Producer and Showrunner, came on board and became Diona’s ipso facto partner.  The goal at Divergent is to use the voices of people of color behind the camera to support, amplify, and elevate diverse stories and talent. We talk about inclusivity and hiring in unscripted content, the history of racism in our...

Today on the podcast – everyone’s favorite producer and all around human David Eilenberg. Dave is now Chief Creative Officer at ITV America where he’s guiding creative strategy, leveraging intellectual property, and helping grow the group’s six vertical production labels, including ITV Entertainment, Leftfield Pictures, Sirens Media, Thinkfactory Media, High Noon Entertainment and Good Caper Content. Dave cut his teeth in this industry working on game shows which led him to The Apprentice –...

Today on the podcast, Sirens Media President Mioshi Hill. Mioshi is a long time producer, starting on the production company side then going to Lifetime were she was VP of development overseeing shows like Little Women: LA, Finding Justice, Making a Model with Yolanda Hadid and Vivica’s Black Magic. She joined Sirens in January of  2021. The company is coming in strong this year with a great season of Real Housewives of New Jersey and the new show Wedding Coach which premieres April 7th on...

Andrea Blaugrund Nevins is a writer, producer and director who’s helmed the new documentary on FX/Hulu called Hysterical. This film is a great portrait of what obstacles female comedians face in the very male-dominated world of comedy. It profiles a wide range of hilarious and thoughtful women, as well as the newcomers who are breaking new ground and changing the game. Andrea and I also talk about her fantastic documentary Tiny Shoulders – rethinking Barbie also streaming on Hulu which...

Today on the podcast, Showrunner and now author Erika Bryant. Erika’s a seasoned Executive Producer who’s worked on shows like  Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta and Married to Medicine and is now show running the third season of Family or Fiancé  on OWN -a show Erika’s been with the show since the beginning. We also talk about her new book DOING IT SCARED: An Inspirational Guidebook to Facing and Conquering Fear which is on sale now (links below in the show notes). We talk about Erika’s...

Showrunner and Oscar and Emmy nominated director Lauren Lazin and Vice President of Development for Bunim Murray Dave Sambuchi are both are Executive Producers of the new 7 part series on E! called FOR REAL: THE STORY OF REALITY TV. I was lucky enough to help develop this series that drops on March 25th and will be aired across multiple NBC Universal platforms. This show truly has it all – from the roots of reality with MTV’s The Real World to celeb reality starting with the Osbournes of of...

Excited to have my friend Sabrina Soto back on the podcast to talk about what she’s been up to the last four years – and it’s a lot! Sabrina is a designer on the HGTV show Ty Breaker, Secret Celebrity Renovation on CBS and hosts her own podcast Re-Designing life. We talk about the shows, vision boards, Clubhouse and our kween Wendy Williams. Enjoy! Links to...

It’s the long awaited breakdown of the 4-part HBO series ALLEN v FARROW with my friend and President of Evolution Media Alex Baskin. We get into ALL of it so be forewarned that “spoilers” abound and we talk about intense subjects like sexual assault and incest which can be triggering for some. As someone who has believed Dylan since she came out publicly in 2014, I was blown away by this series and all I had NOT known about this case. I highly recommend watching it and listening – as we went...

Filmmaker and social justice warrior Billie Mintz has directed and produced many award winning films. I was blown away by his 2018 film The Guardians – now on Amazon Prime – which exposes a criminal enterprise running through family court where the legal kidnapping of elderly people took place in Las Vegas. Because of that film, Billie has became an advocate for vicimts of guardianship fraud around the country and a hero to the #freebritney movement. We talk about that and the NYT/Hulu...

Justin Lacob has the dream job of many people in our business. He’s the Head of Development for XTR – a studio that helps filmmakers on their journeys to get their films made.  Justin also co-founded Documentary+, the Netflix of documentaries. Justin’s a veteran producer who got started on old school reality competition shows like America’s Top Model and ended up on the network side at Spike (which became Paramount) overseeing a gazillion episodes of Bar Rescue. At Paramount he was an...

The Non-Fiction United group is fighting for better conditions for our industry: from fair pay to safe work environments. Today I have on the founder of the NFU, Johanna Vanderspool, who is an award winning director writer and producer, joined by Toni-Ann Lagana, a freelance producer who’s worked on shows like Dancing with the Stars and American Idol and Jason Martinez, a longtime director/producer who most recently produced Temptation Island during the pandemic. We talk about how Covid-19...

Today on the podcast – a trio of development executives who go way back. They all sell shows for competing companies – but have strong friendships and rely on each other as sounding boards and support: Matt Shanfield  – EVP of Development at IPC,  Tom Huffman – EVP of original content at Pilgrim Media Group and Michelle Byars – VP of unscripted at ITV. What are the trends and buzzwords these days in unscripted? What’s the best way to get a show sold straight to series? How do you  pitch in a...

The new six part series Surviving Death on Netflix blew me away so I knew I had to talk to the Director and Executive Producer who also happened to be behind many other stellar films and series. Ricki Stern talks about what attracted her to the subject matter, how she chose the stories to profile and what she believes after immersing herself in the spirit world. We also get into some of Ricki’s other work like the Preppy Murder series on AMC, Surviving Jeffrey Epstein on Lifetime and one of...

The two-part documentary Tiger on HBO/HBO Max requires a deep dive and who better to do it with than golfer extraordinaire and my husband Bryan Clobes. Bryan’s not only a gifted golfer (not biased – he actually is a 3 or 4 handicap – whatever that means) but a documentary fan who has great insight into the themes of Tiger’s life: his relationship with his parents, his rise, fall and rise again, his relationships and whether he’ll ever be the true GOAT of golf. Follow...

On this very special episode, two of my all time favorite people talk about the transition from reality TV to real estate. Both Susan and Irina worked in television before switching careers to become realtors and own their own brokerage firm. They talk about why they made the move, what skills they learned in TV helped them become successful realtors and what’s it’s like to be partners in business and life. Follow Susan and Irina on...

Rosie Mercado is a true inspiration – a proud Latina woman who’s struggled with self esteem issues her whole life. When she decided to join the cast of Curvy Girls (now streaming on Peacock), she got serious about losing weight and changing her life. She talks about her journey to losing 240lbs, her new book and podcast “The Girl with Self Esteem Issues” and how she had another baby at 40 years old in the middle of a global pandemic! Follow Rosie...

It’s our bi-annual end of year TV recap with my friend and TV blogger Brian Samuels. We’re talking about all the shows we’re watching and recommend. From The Queens Gambit to Murder at Middle Beach to Shark Tank, we tell you about everything we love from the last few months. And of course we’ll tell you what we love to hate watch (looking at you Emily in Paris) and what you definitely want to miss. Enjoy! Brian’s blog: http://tvuncovered.com Follow...

Journalist, writer and podcast host Vanessa Grigoriadis joins me to talk about her new podcast Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen about a con artist who fooled Hollywood players big and small for years with elaborate and often nefarious schemes. We also talk about her podcast about Ivanka Trump on Luminary which is very juicy and illuminating and discuss her book about men, women and consent on college campuses. Enjoy! Listen to Chameleon: Hollywood Con...

You don’t want to miss the four part documentary THE REAGANS on Showtime. I do a deep dive with director Matt Tyrnauer about shattering the mythology around him and his presidency and what it was like to produce this film in a pandemic. Plus he gives me some juicy tidbits that didn’t make it into the doc. What is happening in politics today makes a lot more sense after you watch this and you’ll understand why global decisions about our democracy were being made by an astrologer. All episodes...

The cousins – Sarah and Miriam Kanter – are back for another fun recap- this time of THE CROWN. The incredible Netflix series dropped it’s fourth season recently. It’s based on real events in the royal family and we try and separate fact from fiction (with the help of other podcasts, documentaries and Wikipedia). We dive into the royal family dynamics, Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s marriage (and his long time affair with Camilla Parker Bowles) and Margaret Thatcher’s stint as Prime Minister...

Today on the podcast, the women who brought you new Starz documentary Seduced: Inside the Nxivm Cult. I had the pleasure of talking with the Executive Producers Cecilia Peck and Inbal Lessner about how this four part series came to be. The first order of business was telling the women’s stories by women – all in key positions of production.  We talk about how a cult member trying to seduce Cecilia led them to this dark story, how India Oxenberg became the focal point of the series and what it...

Drama is going down in Salt Lake City Utah! Never thought I’d say those words – but that is what’s happening on the new Bravo franchise Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Fellow podcaster and hilarious tweeter Ryan Bailey and I break down all the shenanigans. We cover burning questions like is Mary the new Keith Raniere minus the volleyball plus the Versace? Is Meredith’s son the best housewife adjacent character or is T’Challa?! We also talk OC and whether it can redeem itself again… Check...

Today on the podcast, Sharon Liese and Sasha Alpert. Sharon directed and Sasha produced the amazing new film TRANSHOOD – premiering on HBO and HBO Max on November 14th. It’s a beautiful story following 4 trans kids over the span of five years, documenting their lives and their families, amidst conflict, celebration and change. What makes it even more interesting is all the families live in (conservative) Kansas City, KS against the backdrop of a harrowing political environment for the trans...