What Five Hours With Alex Cooper’s Fans Say About Podcasting

I’ve spent the past few days at South by Southwest, the annual tech and arts festival in Austin. The most memorable part of my experience was embedding myself with the screaming fans of “Call Her Daddy” podcast host Alex Cooper, who threw multi-day events to celebrate the launch of the Unwell Network, an arm of her production company where she’s signing other top creators including TikToker Alix Earle to launch their own podcasts. 

People came out in droves for her Saturday night show. Some fans I spoke to lined up as early as 3:30 p.m. to ensure they would get in for the 7 p.m. event, which they kicked off by chanting “Alex! Alex! Alex!” Earle was there and snapped photos with fans, who were mostly women in their 20s and 30s. I also spotted billionaire investor Mark Cuban in the VIP area. Mario Carbone, the chef and creator of the popular restaurant Carbone, personally served attendees his famous spicy rigatoni vodka pasta.

Why did they wait for hours? With the hope of meeting Cooper in the flesh. She delivered: Cooper said a few remarks on stage and then mingled with a mob of fans, hugging them, taking shots and selfies against the cowboy-themed decor. Revelers could also get temporary tattoos with phrases like “Unwell” and “Daddy Gang,” the nickname for her fans. One woman had “Daddy Gang” airbrushed on her pregnant belly.