Unwell Network, Alex Cooper, and Matt Kaplan Explained | Good Noticings

Añadido: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]So, Alex Cooper founded the Unwell Network in, I believe, 2024.

[00:00:06]If you don't know who Alex Cooper is, somehow she is the host of Call Her Daddy. Originally the co-host of Call Her Daddy.

[00:00:12]>> Yes. So, basically her and her roommate Sophia, they were like randomly roommates in New York City, right? They started this podcast. They did like one or two episodes on their own and then they were acquired by Bar Stool. They joined the Bar Stool network. They kind of blew up. They became this huge success. They did like a million dollars in merch. They were making something like $65,000 the first year. The second year they made way more money. But Sophia, as the rumors go, had this boyfriend who worked in entertainment, was like, "You guys are worth way more than this." She wanted to fight for a better deal. Obviously, Dave Pointer didn't want to give them a better deal.

[00:00:42]He kind of went to Alex. Alex signed a solo deal and essentially cut Sophia out where she was told, "If you work for us for one more year for $500,000, I will give you the IP." Well, I heard so originally Dave Portoy had said, "I'll give you each $500,000 to stay with Bar Stool." When Alex went behind Sophia's back, the rumor is she got both of their salaries and a one-year deal where at the end of that year, she could take the IP behind Caller Daddy, so like the name Caller Daddy and do whatever she wanted. She then, of course, famously went to Spotify, sold it for $60 million. The joke is somehow even though Alex took not just a million dollars, if that's true, but ultimately $60 million, Sophia was deemed very greedy, shitty, like horrible, lazy.

[00:01:29]People hated her. I mean, the hate is always funny, and I say this as a podcaster, like with a self-awareness, like one of the interesting parts of a parasocial relationship is that you could be so angry at somebody for not doing something you love anymore that you would like hate them. Do you know what I mean? This idea that like you would love call her daddy so much that the idea that Sophia would stop doing it would make you hate her. Anyway, Sophia was like persona nongrada in all of the world for like 6 months.

[00:01:51]>> Yeah. But Alex's feeling was, well, I'm the one who does all the work. Alex was the one who edited it. That has now been like contested. But I just heard Sophie on a podcast say something like, well, I had offered to take editing classes so I could help, but she would say no. Which >> But she also claims that she was writing the jokes. I don't know.

[00:02:08]>> There's been a lot of rumors that like part of the reason Alex Cooper took so long to do a live show is because she had someone else writing the jokes. I mean, I know from a Barcel employee that within a few months, they had run out of stories, so they would like go through Reddit and steal other people's stories.

[00:02:20]Yeah. I find it very interesting how like cutthroat they were about making it successful. And I Alex Cooper and call her Alex really kind of owns a lot of that narrative of like, I was smart enough to make us look more bimboey in the photo. I was smart enough to do that. Like I think now she would almost rewrite that and go, "Yeah, we were smart enough to know that like these are the stories people like. Like we know how to source stories." Anyway, when she sold to Spotify for $60 million, Sophia obviously had been completely cut out.

[00:02:46]Something very interesting that we know from like the podcasting world is that obviously people were selling her anything. She had cart blanch blank check to do anything she could possibly want. Did she want to start a network?

[00:02:54]Did she want to do this? Did she want to do that? No. All she wanted to do is deliver one episode a week. And I think she has since come out and said like, I just wanted to make sure I could deliver what I knew I could do and I know I can do one episode a week. Since then, she has married this man, Matt Kaplan.

[00:03:06]They've created a company together called Trending. Mhm.

[00:03:09]>> Unwell Network is underneath it. He is a production company. He has been in the world of TV and movies for a very long time since college. He graduated it seems like in 2004.

[00:03:17]>> Ace Entertainment.

[00:03:19]>> Yeah. And so they now have one big conglomerate and it seems like as they have become a romantic partnership, he has given her the confidence or he has pushed her to say like let's expand this.

[00:03:30]>> Yeah. So, under trending, which is the name of the company, you have Matt Kaplan's production company, you have Unwell Network, you have the Unwell Creative Agency, and then also they have like a consumer products company, which I don't think is doing very well.

[00:03:43]>> No. So, I just want to go through quickly the timeline of Unwell Network and their shows because me and Ashley have always been like, I think they're not doing well. Right. So, in 2021, she signs with Spotify for a three-year $60 million contract. when it was up in 2024, she went with Sirius XM for a three-year $125 million contract.

[00:04:03]>> So, we know from the podcast world that that's not the real number. That's only the number if she like doubles her listenership. Like, but she is great about knowing that all of your brand is what people think about you and like your value is what people think your value is. She's great at getting a headline out there and the headline is Alex Cooper leaves Spotify to sign with Sirius XM for a $125 million contract.

[00:04:24]when the truth was that Spotify didn't want her to be exclusive with them anymore because they weren't making their money back. So they were like, "Okay, when we renew, like we have to be able to put this on all our SS feeds, Apple podcast, Stitcher, wherever you get your podcast so that we can make more ad revenue off you." It was really important to her to maintain that exclusive title because she knows that that makes her look exclusive. So they were like, "Okay, well then we're done with you." after they cut her off, she went and made this deal with Sirius, used the biggest number she could find legally on the contract. Even though it's like it's kind of like saying this is my salary if we win the Super Bowl.

[00:04:57]You know what I mean? Like >> if all things go impossibly well, this is how much I'll make. But she got that headline out there first cuz she is kind of brilliant and being like, I know how to control the narrative, >> right? So, Unwell Network launches in 2023 with new podcasts from Alex Earl, who was at that time just like the hottest new name on the influencer scene. I feel like she had kind of come not out of nowhere, but she blew up very quickly over a year and then suddenly was in like Super Bowl commercials, launching this podcast in like the initial round of Unwell Network podcast.

[00:05:29]It was a big deal.

[00:05:30]>> And Maline RG, right?

[00:05:31]>> Yes. Who's like a British Emma Chamberlain?

[00:05:34]>> Oh, yeah. I forget. Emma Chamberlain isn't British. She's like a British messy her she's messy and she doesn't leave her room but she's so she's you know when you look at a girl in your school and you go you're so beautiful you could be a model and they go well I'm not tall enough. What they could be is Maline Argie.

[00:05:47]>> Yeah.

[00:05:48]>> It's her Instagram has given like a whole new profession to girls like that.

[00:05:52]>> So in 2024 they add a podcast with Owen Teal who is just kind of a friend to all stars.

[00:06:00]>> Yeah. Deep dive. Like I don't know how he gets in the room.

[00:06:04]>> Yeah. Yeah, he did like a short with Kazzy David like seven or eight years ago >> and then he's like in Taylor Swift's music video. Like he is somebody who has been in the background of every mega famous person's Instagram the whole time. It's very bizarre.

[00:06:15]>> In 2024 they launched Extra Dirty with Haley Betelder who is an influencer and this was kind of viewed as the successor to Call Her Daddy's runchy side. So, Call Her Daddy was originally a sex podcast and when it was just Alex Cooper hosting it, it became an interview podcast where she just interviews celebrities and now Hi Butlder is kind of like the party girl runchy podcast.

[00:06:38]Then in January 2025, they launch a beverage called Unwell. I was reading she recently did an ad for it, a Jerry Springer style ad, which is not good.

[00:06:49]There's something about her hair is so necessary because they you put her in a wig and all you can see is the Botox.

[00:06:54]But it was so funny because I don't know the ad didn't make much sense. It was just like tapping into something that I think ChatgBT said millennials and Jenzi will like. It's like nostalgic and ads should be nostalgic. But all the comments were like, "Why would I drink an electro delight drink that says unwell?"

[00:07:08]>> Yeah. I mean, I do think if you're buying into it, you're buying into her and so you know the gist. But it is so funny to think that somebody in Costco, like an old woman in Costco, wouldn't be like, "Oh, that's good for you."

[00:07:19]>> Yeah.

[00:07:19]>> It's called unwell. But the comment feedback was not looking positive.

[00:07:23]>> No. And I I guess I also just feel that the electrolyte beverage space. I don't know. We learned from Lover Boy.

[00:07:30]Breaking into beverages is really hard.

[00:07:33]>> Well, some people do it great. Look at Prime. Look at Poppy. That's true.

[00:07:37]Actually, I just had a Poppy last night for the first time ever, and me and Mac were both like, "Wait, this is really good. Why does anyone talk about it?

[00:07:42]>> Alex Earl's talking about it. I guess I still feel safe in saying launching a beverage is hard. Especially because she can't even launch a podcast. I'm just saying it does seem to be the merch duour. Yeah. Whereas like for a really long time it was makeup and then it was skincare. It does seem like I think Kylie Jenner just got into beverages, electrolyte beverages. It is the dujour thing that I guess you can slap a name on and license.

[00:08:06]>> Yeah. I guess I think it's really interesting though that she can't really it seems get people to listen to a podcast that isn't even hers.

[00:08:15]>> Yeah.

[00:08:15]>> So selling a physical product is difficult.

[00:08:18]>> So talk to me about the podcast situation cuz this is where we're obviously uniquely interested.

[00:08:22]>> So unwell beverages January 2025 February 2025 Harry Jy and Grace Ali podcasts are added. Grace Ali was previously on a bar stool sports podcast, had a falling out with Brianna Chicken Fry, who unfortunately we've talked about before, and was then signed by Unwell Network.

[00:08:41]>> Also, with the move to Sirius XM, three radio shows were launched.

[00:08:46]>> Those have since all but one have been cancelled, >> but that one has been completely changed, right?

[00:08:51]>> Yeah. And there seems to be some pretty bad will in December 2025 when these shows were abruptly canceled. like it seems.

[00:08:59]>> Yeah, like the podcast hosts themselves seem pissed off.

[00:09:01]>> I'm going to do some digging and see if I can pull anything up. I think we know people in common with some of them. We actually were at a party with one of them recently. Anyway, it seems that there's pretty bad. They've posted like lip lock emojis about potentially being under an NDA. They have said that they originally signed a 5-year contract and were very surprised to have it cancelled after, I think, less than one year. So, she launched a podcast called The Burnouts with Phoebe Gates and her brand co-founder Sophia something. And then in 2026, most recently, Serena Pit and Joe Elma Bele from the Bachelor Nation.

[00:09:40]>> Grocery Store Joe.

[00:09:41]>> Grocery Store Joe. I think I recently saw him say, you know, I'm thinking about getting the age where I'm ready to start thinking about settling down. He's 48 years old, I think. And he said, I think I'm getting to the point where maybe I could be a father soon. I'd say father. They've launched now a pop culture podcast on the Unwwell network.

[00:09:58]And I know a lot of people are saying, "Why would I want to listen to Serena and Joe from Bachelor Nation do a pop culture show?" It doesn't seem like anyone's listening to any of these Unwell Network podcast. I think Harry Jy get some listenership. He was on like Too Hot to Handle, I think.

[00:10:14]>> And then he was recently on Slow-mo.

[00:10:16]>> Yeah.

[00:10:17]>> Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

[00:10:18]>> He is good about staying in the mix.

[00:10:20]>> Yeah, >> he is. I will say we were actually at a party and he was there and he was the only straight man and I didn't recognize him as Harry Jazzy but I did recognize him as like the only straight man in a room in a t-shirt whereas everyone else was wearing like pretty fancy dresses and I was like what is that guy doing here? Who is he? He's taller than everybody. What who invited him? And then I was like oh that's Harry Josie and it was so Unwell Network has also branched into television. They first launched the Alex Cooper documentary on Hulu, a documentary about Alex Cooper, in which she said, "Will I get this live show ready in time for my tour?" And the answer was yes because the tour had already happened.

[00:10:57]>> I guess I also was like, "Why wouldn't you?"

[00:11:00]>> Yeah. Like I No offense, I know. Like we're not doing like Listen, we're hardly the >> We don't have pyrochnics, but still.

[00:11:07]>> It's still But we also don't have $60 million to [ __ ] around with. She hosted the Hannah Montana reunion, which I think has raised a lot more questions than answers. Like, why was Alex Cooper hosting the Hannah Montana reunion? Who cares? I think I can backend answer it now. What is it? I've heard Miley say she learned from Dolly just like say you wanted to do it. They're neighbors.

[00:11:26]>> Mhm. And it seems like that Matt Kaplan, we gave a private story that I can't give here on our podcast last week about what Matt Kaplan is like on a call. And I think he is incredibly like aggressive. And I think Miley was just like, I want this to happen. and he was probably the dog most on the bone, you know what I mean? It kind of seemed like something that she was like, I'll let anyone do this if they're willing to do it. And he said, I'll do it.

[00:11:44]>> They have a reality show called Love Overboard hosted by Gabby Wendy and most recently Unwell Winter Games, which is a competition show where, much like with Mr. Beast's situation, the onset dynamic has been fraught. What's happened? Well, I know that Taylor Frankie Paul's evil ex is on there, so I refuse to even acknowledge it.

[00:12:04]>> Yeah. So, the casting was controversial.

[00:12:06]Dakota from Love Island received a resting order.

[00:12:11]>> Yeah. Dakota from Mormon Wives. In the promotion of the show, they seem to be leaning into the red flaggginess of the contestants. Like, it seemed to be celebrated that we're dealing with some villains here. And the show is just on YouTube, like a multi-million dollar YouTube production. So, why wouldn't it be? Let's talk about who Matt Kaplan is.

[00:12:31]Matt Kaplan actually was the quarterback at Columbia University. So, I know from experience that that means almost nothing. I do think they're like one of the losingest teams.

[00:12:42]>> Okay.

[00:12:42]>> But God bless Robert. What's his name?

[00:12:44]Craft >> from the Patriots.

[00:12:46]>> Yeah.

[00:12:46]>> Yeah.

[00:12:46]>> There's no amount of money he won't pour into that team.

[00:12:50]>> Anyway, he's famous for having dated Ashley Olsen and then being married to Cla Holt.

[00:12:55]>> Yeah.

[00:12:55]>> He dated Ashley Olsson when he was in college and then he married Cla Hol for less than a year. They got divorced. He filed for divorce the day before their anniversary. They got married 2016, divorced 2017. He married Alexander Cooper 2024.

[00:13:10]He's known for loving a powerful woman.

[00:13:12]Yes, I had heard that for a long time that he loves like a woman that he like recognizes her business potential. And I think him and Alex Cooper actually famously met on a work Zoom. So, I guess he got on that Zoom and said, "This is a [ __ ] that can make me some money." And he was right. He was dead right. He is just from the entertainment world. He produced To All the Boys I Loved Before.

[00:13:29]that was his big thing with his last entertainment company called Ace Entertainment that he created. So anyway, the point is they are expanding.

[00:13:38]They've hired I think over a hundred people to work at the various companies within trending. I hate that it's called that. Where do you work? I work at Trending. Like just tell me. Don't gatekeep it. Tell me what's trending.

[00:13:52]Anyway, so they've hired like hundreds of people. The turnover is rapido. There was a Bloomberg article that came out recently and within the past year, the head of brand marketing, the head of network, and the chief growth officer have all left along with like 20 other employees. We covered this on the Patreon, but a girl has come out on TikTok and said when she applied for one of the roles, Matt Kaplan was such an [ __ ] to her and basically was like, "Well, where do your parents work?" And she was like, "How could that possibly be relevant?" And he's like, "Well, everybody here is just like a nepo baby who doesn't work that hard, so I want to know what you're actually about." Which feels like illegal to say in an interview.

[00:14:28]Yeah. Also, like who hired all the Nepo babies then? I don't know. You have like a Phoebe Gates business podcast.

[00:14:34]>> I have to say very few things get me truly ruffled. Like I know if you listen to the podcast, you're probably like, "What do you mean, Cla? You care about everything." I don't There's very few things that like at a party I'm hot and bothered about. Something about Phoebe Gates starting a podcast to help people know how to navigate the politics of a first job made me like want to ring next. I'm like, "How [ __ ] dare you say that you're going to help someone learn how to write an email to your boss? You don't know anything. You can never know anything. By definition of being Bill Gates daughter, you will literally never in your life know what an honest to god email looks like. And your dad is the inventor of email. The irony is thick.

[00:15:07]>> Do you I'm not even saying she can't work. I'm not even saying she doesn't even get All I'm saying is that she will never know how to navigate office politics because her dad is the emperor of the office.

[00:15:18]>> Like she will never have an earnest Microsoft Office 365. He literally invented it. She will never have like an earnest lowest person on the totem pole experience. She just can't know. She just can't know. Anyway, so he is famous for screaming at people and we know from personal people that he is like quite a dick.

[00:15:38]>> Yeah.

[00:15:38]>> He's like a huge douchebag and it has now come out that he's always screaming at people all the time and like to the point where people are quitting because of it.

[00:15:44]>> Yeah. So like the production staff on Unwell Winter Games was like if he's on set again, I'm quitting. And then that's why one of the big roadblocks to Alex Cooper's live show is that her production guy quit.

[00:15:57]>> Yeah. And it wasn't mentioned why that happened. They kind of just like made him seem unreliable when now that we know that they're screamers. There's a huge chance this person just couldn't work with them. Especially I'm sorry if you're people who are sitting here being like, "How are we going to get this one hour live stage show ready for seven weeks from now?" Like I don't know. Why can't you get it ready?

[00:16:21]>> Yeah, she did lip syncing.

[00:16:23]>> Yeah, Channing Tatum did like learned it in a minute.

[00:16:27]>> Yeah, but come on. Don't compare any Like that's okay. Yeah. And Shawn Dons can do a triple black flip. Like who?

[00:16:33]>> You know who. You know who.

[00:16:37]Anyway, Sean Don, just cuz I feel like that leads us down a road of like a couple different great Shawn's, you know?

[00:16:50]>> Yeah. And it could be any of them and I'm not any of them. Anyway, the point is Alex Earl Magazone.

[00:16:59]So, Alex Earl has been liking and sharing things, implying that Alex Cooper was unpleasant to work with, which is why her podcast ended so abruptly and exited the network. Alex Cooper then made a video calling out Alex Earl. It was our caps off recently.

[00:17:14]She said, "If you have something to say, [ __ ] say it." Unfortunately, that was what, two weeks ago.

[00:17:19]>> Yeah. Granted, people have pointed out, sleuths have pointed out that this was clearly like a pre-recorded message, which is funny. Like, everyone's taking their goddamn sweet time.

[00:17:27]>> Yeah. has been debunked as PR. I guess we'll never know until we die.

[00:17:31]>> I think we could find out sooner.

[00:17:33]>> But I think people are feeling like Alex Earl, if you don't come back with your PR statement, like, well, what did Alex Cooper do?

[00:17:40]>> Yeah.

[00:17:40]>> Our guess would be it was just a bad deal.

[00:17:44]>> Yeah. And our guess would be it's a bad deal tinged with interpersonal relationships that felt colored by jealousy of the new young blonde Alex with even bigger boobs and even more sports boyfriends and even more followers. And who wouldn't hate a bigger boobed more sports boyfriends?

[00:18:02]If you started a side podcast with a girl who looked like me but with any boobs and a sports boyfriend, I'd say, "All right, we're in trouble.

[00:18:11]>> We're in trouble." I guess my final thing is none of it matters, which is kind of the fun. And do you know what I mean? Like nobody's really been [ __ ] over. This is not a true problem here. They're all so rich. I think Alex Earl is worth hundreds of millions of dollars because of her investment in Poppy. Like she just makes tons of money and she parties harder than anybody. And Alex Cooper is fine as well and in an incredible lineage of Ashley Olsen former D. You know what I mean? Like the thing I have to put my foot down about is actually people who say they can't tell them apart. If you're just now finding out that there's two different Alex's, then you have to recuse yourself. You have to recuse yourself from caring. And I don't think people should keep saying that they didn't know there was two Alex's. It's enough. That's fair. Yeah, I agree. I guess I think that overall what makes this so fun is the way that it feels ultimately low stakes. I guess it is not good if the Unwell Network is such a shitty place to work. The thing I feel frustrated about is obviously the entertainment industry has like always been full of people who are disastrous to work for. There's a long history of like the most evil bosses in the world being in charge of movies and TV. And I think it kind of is something to note that right now the industry has been like turned on its head because of alternative media. like because of people being able to just do it themselves and build these empires from the ground up and then be like just as shitty and like take advantage of people just as much and now without any protections of like actual proper office structures, you know what I mean? And obviously people were never being protected, but it's just very funny to say like the more things change the more they stay the same. Like you can completely reinvent the entertainment industry from your like lower east side walk up and still be the horrible person to work for. Do you want to make a prediction about what Alex Earl comes out with? If she comes out with anything, >> I guess it's just going to be that Alex Cooper was mean to her, right?

[00:20:09]>> Why do you think it's taking so long?

[00:20:10]>> I feel like she's trying to save it for the TV show. My prediction is that it doesn't sound good in video. You know what I mean? When someone isn't hasn't done one awful thing to you, they just like were an [ __ ] to you over time.

[00:20:25]It sounds very petulant to be like, "And this one time she said this, and this one time she said that, and then I arrived at the Unwell Super Bowl party and she said, "Is that what you're wearing?" And I do think it's very antithetical to the Alex Earl brand to like maintain petty grievances. Yeah. I feel like the thing that does feel so likable about her is her easy breeziness. And like even with her ex, she has a real like never complain, never explain. She's not Gen Z and that she really doesn't and she can't what identity politics could she rest on. I think she's MAGA. She's a MAGA blonde Barbie whose wealth paternally stems from corruption. I think of the New Jersey Turnpike or something.

[00:21:02]But there is something about her of like she can party all day and she can show up for her friends and she can show up for her sister and she can show up for her mom and she can show up for Real Actives and she can show up for the Tonight Show and then she can go back to partying and then also she's dancing and then also she's working out and she's never eating and she's getting a boob job and nothing stops her. And I do think it would be really bad for her brand to stop now and complain when she is so so privileged. And I feel the internet feels they've given her so much for her to sit and say, "Well, my boss was kind of mean to I agree. I think it'd be a really bad look, especially when all of her followers are people who probably do have like actually bad bosses and are making very little money.

[00:21:36]>> Yeah. Yeah. That's the unless there's like one big thing she can pin on Cooper, I feel Earl's video will fall flat. And I I wonder if that's why she hasn't made it. H Alex, I wonder what the thought process