When you think of podcasters, the image that usually comes to mind is a man trying to demean women and trying to sell you his course to be your true “alpha self”, so when Kamala Harris decided to go on a podcast called “Call Her Daddy,” it sparked some controversy.

“Call Her Daddy” is a podcast headed by Sofia Franklyn and Alexandra Cooper starting from 2018. It started as a general comedy podcast but quickly morphed into a feminist comedy podcast. 

“Call Her Daddy” mainly hosts celebrities like Rupaul and mainstream feminists. They’ve been able to amass over 80 million listeners with their main demographic being white women ages 20-25 (This demographic is 90 percent of their listeners).

Through this success, “Call Her Daddy” has been able to cement themselves as a force to be reckoned with within the podcast community, ranking as the fourth most popular podcast of this year by Edison Research.

While they have received critiques over the years about their form of content and “crude language”, they’ve been able to hold their space and create a community for women and feminists alike.

While “Call Her Daddy’s” listeners have plateaued over the last few months, the podcast has recently entered back into the spotlight with their latest guest speaker. 

On October 7, Vice President and Democratic Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris was featured on the podcast to answer “questions important for the future of women.”

Harris has been known to do few sit-down interviews for mainstream media, especially compared to her 2024 opponent, Donald Trump, making her appearance on the podcast that much more jarring, even leading to discourse online. 

The podcast lost thousands of followers in response to the episode featuring Harris along with accusations that the episode aimed to spread propaganda for the Democratic Party.

People who have seen the podcast episode view it as “distasteful, uncultured, and weird”. Through this new controversy, a conversation about candidates’ appearance, particularly in the media, has begun to rise.

“One of my favorite podcasts and now I’ll never listen to it again. Unbelievable,” one user writes under the teaser trailer for the episode featuring Harris, posted on the Call Her Daddy Instagram page.

“Oh no, why did we have to get THIS political? listening to your podcasts was a nice escape from everything we hear about politics daily,” writes another fan under the same post.

Many of the commenters have also begun to criticize Alexandra for not addressing more hard hitting topics in the interview such as immigration and the recent hurricane problems in the South.

Many of the viewers felt like this episode did not align with the podcast’s usual episodes and humoristic tone, leading to more confusion regarding Harris’ campaign and image rather than clarification.

Harris’ appearance on the podcast seemed to be an effort to solidify her standing regarding policies and objectives while also trying to reach a wider audience, possibly swaying undecided or moderate voters.

It’s not a very common tactic for politicians to appeal to younger audiences, instead often opting to further solidify their current supporters or looking to sway older undecided voters. 

But, Harris’ appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, with its main demographic being younger women, created a possible opening to appeal to voters who may not have participated in elections previously.

Through a poll conducted by Harvard University, 51 percent of independents say the appearance hurt Harris’ image, while 49 percent said it helped her.

This intense divide between a podcast episode has led many to view the situation as more humoristic rather than a serious interview that’s answering questions.

”The fact many of y’all are pressed about this interview shows more about you than Harris.”, one commenter replies to the Instagram post.

In response to the backlash, Cooper in the beginning of the interview says “I am so aware I have a…mixed audience when it comes to politics…What I’m hoping is that you listen to a conversation that isn’t too different than the ones…here every week”

Despite the mixed views that have arised from Kamala Harris’ appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, it’s opened the doors for further discussion regarding politicians and their appearances on mainstream media.

Whether this interview helped or hindered Harris will be decided as of November and will continue to affect the future that’s presented regarding the further inclusion of media in campaigns.