Literary It girl Caroline Calloway joins Erin Hosier and Elizabeth Thompson to talk about her father's tragic suicide amidst her viral public shaming in 2019, her obsession with the late Prozac Nation memoirist and Gen X agent of chaos Elizabeth Wurtzel (who Erin knew well as EW's first assistant in 1999), and the generational legacies left by their unknowable fathers (particularly Wurtzel's secret bio dad Bob Adelman). Caroline interviews Erin about the making of Wurtzel's 2001 advice book, Radical Sanity - which is the inspiration for Caroline's latest - and the three discuss the fallout of the daddy issues complicated women inherit from complicated men. 

[1:00–12:00] Becoming Caroline Calloway

The rise of Caroline’s Instagram-era fame, her viral captions, and the internet culture that turned her into a lightning rod. Caroline shares how grieving her father led her to a midnight pilgrimage to the Harvard library, connecting with the version of him she loved most.

[12:00–20:00] Scammer and SurvivalCaroline leans into the “scammer” label and reframes it.

[20:00–36:00] Father Fallout

TW: A frank discussion of Caroline’s father’s suicide, mental illness, and the parallels the hosts draw from their own paternal losses.

[36:00–53:00] Ghosts We Can LoveCaroline reads from Scammer, reflecting on the “younger version” of her father she grieves and how memory can be redemptive.

[53:00–1:03:00] The Wurtzel ConnectionErin recounts her friendship with Elizabeth Wurtzel and the confessional literary era of the 90s that reshaped women’s writing, and the tragic true story of EW's secret father

[1:03:00–1:14:00] Literary LineageCaroline explains her obsession with Wurtzel, the artifacts she collected, and why “messy women” matter.

[1:14:00–End] Mentorship, Madness, and MeaningA spirited discussion of mentorship, fandom, and finding beauty in complicated legacies.

Author Aatish Taseer, whose new book A Return To Self: Excursions in Exile comes out this week, did not meet his father, Salman Taseer, the former Governor of Punjab, Pakistan until he was 21 and their relationship was, to say the least, complicated. In 2009, he wrote a book about the experience, Stranger to History, about his journey to meet his father that was also an exploration of what it means to be a Muslim in the 21st Century. Shortly after Aatish made contact with his father, in early 2011, Governor Taseer was assassinated by his own bodyguard for pardoning a woman who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed. On this episode of Tell Me About Your Father, Aatish Taseer talks with Matt Phillp about his new book, the complicated response he continues to have to his father’s violent assassination, the value and beauty of going on a pilgrimage, what it means to identify with a nation, and how it feels to have been ejected by one.

1:24 – Stranger to History & Aftermath. The journey to meet his father, writing Stranger to History, and how the book was used in the trial of his father’s killer.

4:06 – Exile from India & Dual Identity. Losing Indian citizenship after criticizing Modi, and grappling with home, identity, and belonging.

5:10 – Pilgrimage & Spiritual Encounters. Travel, grief, and spiritual moments in Morocco and Mongolia — including Aatish’s first adult prayer and an eerie experience in the Sahara.

 21:43 – "Venus & Serena" and royal racism. Aatish recounts his relationship with Lady Gabriella Windsor and the story of Princess Michael of Kent’s black sheep named Venus and Serena.

25:23 – Fragility of Privilege & Royal Absurdity. Reflections on British aristocracy, EasyJet royalty, and being exiled from elite circles.

33:41 – The Power of Ritual. Burning Man, sacred spaces, and the shared human need for grief and connection.

39:28 – Pilgrimage as Memory. A Mongolian shamanic ritual leads to insights on memory, loss, and reconciling with the past.

53:21 – Fathers, Futility & Freedom. The complicated relief after his father’s death, and commentary on liberalism, values, and the West.

1:00:07 – Family, Writing, and What Remains. On estrangement, inheritance, finding home with his husband, and the writer’s role in making sense of it all.

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It's Gay Pride (in America)! To commemorate iconic homosexual musician George Michael in the week of what would have been his 62nd birthday, and for our fifth annual Pride episode in the last week of Pride MONTH, Matt takes a look at the enduring cultural impact of George Michael's song Father Figure, and the idea that, as eminent American producer, Dick Clark once put it “Music is the soundtrack of your life.” And from there, Matt talks about how George Michael’s music helped him as a small boy to re-discover the fun of pop music, and maybe even life, after the sudden death of his father. It’s an episode about a whole lot of things, it runs a slim, almost 27 minutes (a commute!), and it includes Liza Minnelli, Stephen Sondheim, and The Pet Shop Boys in a small but reassuring way.

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On today’s bonus episode of TMAYF, we look back at 6 episodes over the last 5 years that we just can’t stop thinking about. Featuring political podcaster Ravi Gupta, psychic medium Victoria Laurie, fine artist Chris Santa Maria's on his Uncle Bunky, Superstar Molly Shannon, author Gretchen Cherington, and the incomparable Christian Nightmares.

In Part 3, we take a closer look at Elon's descent into Dark MAGA, his unshakeable bond with his father Errol (who now hosts a YouTube channel called Dad of a Genius), and the hopeful rebellion of Musk’s daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson. Sometimes, being your own dad is the only way out.

In Part 2, we strap ourselves into the roller coaster of Musk’s chaotic romantic relationships, his obsession with fathering a “legion” of children, and the dumb pro-natalist ideology behind it. From pay-for-silence pacts with exes to a compound in Austin for all the sister wives, this episode is about how Musk parents his kids, and by extension, the world he thinks he’s going to save..

In part one of our two-part series on Elon Musk, based mostly on Walter Isaacson's 2023 biography, we look past the desperate memes and fuckwit chainsaws to see the bruised man underneath the $400 billion net worth. From apartheid South Africa and a violent father to ketamine-fueled Oval Office farewells, here's what happens when a person turns his daddy issues into the world's problem. Part 2: How He Parents (His kids and America) drops next!

Erin & Elizabeth talk with Gen-X icon Ione Skye (Say Anything, River's Edge, Zodiac), the actress and author of the NYT-bestselling memoir SAY EVERYTHING. Ione's father is the 60s folk wizard and Sunshine Superman, Donovan. But while Donovan did claim Ione's brother Dono as his own, he referred to Ione since birth only as "the girl," only meeting her for the first time when she was by that point a famous teenager. Ione tells us about how his abandonment affected her early romantic relationships with musicians (Anthony Kiedis, Adam Horovitz), what her husband Ben Lee has taught her about consistency, love and fatherhood, and how the road from rejection to reconciliation is paved with self-protection. 

Erin talks with Laurie Woolever, the author of the new memoir Care & Feeding, out this week from Ecco/HarperCollins. Laurie was Anthony Bourdain's assistant from 2009 until his death by suicide in 2018. She coauthored the cookbook Appetites and World Travel with him, and is the New York Times bestselling author of Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography. Care & Feeding is an extremely honest portrayal of Laurie's personal and professional coming of age as a high-functioning addict (to alcohol and excess) in the anything goes era of the food gods of NYC; her first job in the industry was as the assistant to the maniacal Mario Batali for a few years in the early 2000s. Laurie also talks about her actual father, John, whose lifelong caregiving of her mother amidst chronic illness taught Laurie a thing or two about how the care and feeding of others can and must extend to the self. 

It’s our annual TMAYF Academy Awards special, in which we examine the ten Best Picture nominees through the lens of literal and symbolic fatherhood. Joining us, as always, is the founding cousin of the TV recap, Vanity Fair’s chief critic, and co-host of the Little Gold Men podcast, Richard Lawson. Together, Matt, Erin, Elizabeth, and Richard chat about dadly silver screen topics, including tyrannical father figures who loom large even in their absence, the seemingly shifting depiction of male mentorship, and, of course, the enduring influence of totalitarian dads, be they popes, oligarchs, or wizards. We also get into the Anora of it all, whether it's time for Timothee to put away childish things, and hear Richard's winner predictions. Hit play!