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We’re less than a week into 2024, and we already have our first major water cooler moment of the year — at least for those that pay attention to reality TV.

You’ve surely seen the memes, the reactions, the hoopla on social media about the season 4 finale of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” a highly-anticipated episode that promised to contain a big reveal and more than delivered on that promise. You can get all of my thoughts and feelings and reactions to the instantly iconic episode on my podcast, because I recorded an hour-long deep dive that came out this morning and I’d love if you would listen to it (HERE).

But I will say that the more that I think about the episode — and I’ve thought about it a lot — the more I realized how telling it is that the most enduring image from the finale was that of the show’s four original cast members gathered on the beach. Heather summoned Meredith, Lisa and Whitney via text for what I’ve been calling The OG Summit to dramatically reveal that their newest co-star, Monica, is secretly behind the troll account that had been tormenting all of them for years. They’re all stunned and each react in their own characteristic ways that we’ve come to know over the past four years, but something more significant happened in this moment: They were brought together.

These four women, who between them have had seemingly every possible alliance and friendship combination possible already, some of whom currently dislike one another or have been fighting over something or other as recently as the night before, saw past their previous ups and downs to close ranks and form an immediate fortress with one another around their show. A fan, to lack of a better term, had infiltrated their cast somehow and she wasn’t going to get away with it by bringing them — and the show that they’ve built together — down. With the three words “Reality Von Tease,” Heather provided them with the reminder that they all have a common enemy and they now know that enemy’s identity.

It’s a powerful moment for the show, of course, and a reminder of these Housewives’ power in numbers. These four women have been through it together. One of their fellow original cast members, Jen, who is obviously no longer on the show, was arrested by the feds on a previous season. The problem for them then was that they didn’t know exactly how they should react; they disagreed on how to continue forward when it came to Jen. But with Monica, who literally worked (and studied?) under Jen as her assistant, there’s a clear response, and it’s for them to unite against her and condemn what she allegedly tried to do to them. It’s partially for that reason that I don’t think we’ll see Monica back on “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” again. There are just simply too many odds and OGs stacked against her.

• I loved this thread detailing how Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen went against the grain and defied expectations, trends and their public image as twins to create their timeless and beloved fashion label, The Row. (Ari Murray on X/Twitter)

• Emma Stone has landed herself in a front-runner position for an Oscar yet again — this article does a nice job of tracing how she went from movies like “Superbad” and “Easy A” to a versatile, prestige actress. (Jackson McHenry for Vulture)

• Really interesting piece examining prolific radio host Charlamagne Tha God’s growing impact on politics and his large listenership of Black voters, as well as his soured relationships with Biden and Harris. (Brakkton Booker for Politico)

• If you’ve ever been intrigued by where celebrities hang out these days and why they always seem to be at places like Delilah, The Nice Guy and The Bird Streets, the answer is that they’re all owned by John Terzian. This fun little profile very slightly pulls back the curtain on him and his empire. (Sheila Yasmin Marikar for The New York Times)

• Travis Kelce is having a breakthrough moment in culture right now. That was always the plan, according to this spotlight on his managers André and Aaron Eanes, though the plan was fast-tracked by his relationship with Taylor Swift. (Zach Schonbrun for The New York Times)

• This lengthy “opinion piece” has gone viral over the past 24 hours or so since it came out because it very publicly and very loudly proclaims that there’s a possibility that Taylor Swift could be queer. I’m a proud Swiftie, but I’m decidedly not part of the Gaylor crowd, and I disliked this article for the same reason I’ve never subscribed to the theories: Even though we all get sucked into such conversations from time to time, I’m never left with a good feeling after speculating about someone’s sexuality — famous or not. And it felt like the writer was just trying to defend her own decision to do so the whole time. Anyway, give this one a read and let me know your thoughts, because I’m genuinely curious what people think about it. (Anna Marks for The New York Times)

Jodi Walker, who is part of The Ringer’s Reality TV-focused podcast, launched a narrative podcast all about Scandoval that you should absolutely listen to. I can already hear the groans about Scandoval fatigue — and I relate to them! — but this true crime spoof-ish take brings a fresh new spin to the biggest Bravo story of 2023. Listen below:

On that same note, I recently guested on “Morally Corrupt,” which is part of the same Ringer Reality TV podcast feed, to go deep on all things Bravo from 2023 with host Rachel Lindsay — listen to that below, ICYMI!

I’d never listened to this show before, but this specific episode was recommended to me somewhere recently, and I’m so glad I listened. In this era of endless #content and overconsumption, it often feels like we have to optimize every minute of our days. There’s always something else to listen to or read or watch, which can result in us forgetting to leave time to just be. At least, that’s true for me. This episode makes sense of that sensation and explains how to combat it. Listen below:

If you somehow haven’t heard of the Natalia Grace story or missed the first season of this docu-series, make sure to catch up by watching that before you jump into these new episodes. It’s one of the craziest stories, which involves the adoption of a Ukranian girl with dwarfism whose adoptive family abandons her after questioning whether she’s truly a child or secretly an adult woman. While the first season featured a lot of wild claims being made by her former adoptive father, this new batch of episodes tells her side of the story first-hand. That’s all I’ll say for now — no spoilers!

As I wrote about in my watch list from December, over the holidays my family and I watched this new, three-episode docu-series on Hulu about the International Science and Engineering Fair for high school students. We were obsessed with the charming, heartwarming, inspiring series and the group of kids (and teachers) that it spotlights, and we realized that before the series came a documentary film about a different group as they navigated the same event from a few years ago, so we watched that too. They both scratch the same itch, and they’re both worth watching.

Miley Cyrus has been doing little pop-up concerts at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, posting a few clips from several songs on her Instagram. She’s also been posting full versions of the songs on her YouTube channel, and this cover of “Faithfully” (a song that will always remind me of “Glee,” TBH!) is my favorite. No disrespect to Kelly Clarkson but, to me, Miley is the true queen of covers. I could listen to her sing anything.

I shared all of my thoughts, feelings, takeaways, learnings, predictions and more about the season 4 finale of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” on my podcast this week with the help of writer Louis Staples (BTW, Check out his latest pieces for The Cut — this one about ex-Housewives re-entering the fold and this one about the year of Bravo in 2023). We answered questions like where the show goes from here, if Monica could conceivably come back, whether the episode was over-produced and more. Watch above or listen below:

Also on my podcast this week, I answered a bunch of listener questions about topics ranging from Bravo (“Real Housewives of Potomac,” what’s going on with the season of “Ultimate Girls Trip” in Morocco) to pop culture (“The Traitors” season 2, unpopular opinions, what Miley’s up to) to the personal (how I got started in my career). Listen to it below:

I just started my first book of the year — “Yellowface” by R. F Kuang — and I’m looking forward to watching the three-part Lifetime interview special with Gypsy Rose Blanchard that starts tonight. I was prepared for New York to get a big snow storm this weekend, too, but turns out that’s not happening anymore. Enjoy the first weekend of the year and take it easy!

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