Alex Cooper Is Building Empires (Yes, Plural)

Seven years into her career, much of Alex Cooper’s lore has been well documented. But for those who don’t know, a quick rundown: the former Division 1 soccer player turned "Call Her Daddy" podcaster and Unwell founder, got her start at Barstool Sports with a co-host who, in a much-publicized and contentious breakup, eventually broke off to do her own thing. Cooper left Barstool, taking the podcast to Spotify for a big money deal, then to SiriusXM for an even bigger money deal—and she brought her Unwell Network of podcasts to the radio behemoth with her. Today, she announces her next steps for SiriusXM domination: Unwell Music—a channel of tunes curated by Cooper and friends; and Unwell On Air—a channel with daily live programming, including a place for faithful listeners (the Daddy Gang) to call in and join the conversation with the radio hosts, and once a week, Cooper herself. And let's not forget that just last month, she launched Unwell Hydration, a line of electrolyte drinks.

I’m not an OG Daddy Gang member, but I’ve tracked Cooper’s goings-on for a few years now. I clocked the Vogue wedding article. Watched some moments from the 2024 Summer Olympics. Laughed as clips from interviews with celebs like Love Island’s Leah Kateb, Gywneth Paltrow, and Jojo Siwa hit my social media feeds at every turn. I may not have known about "Slim Shady" or "Mr. Sexy Zoom Man" (eventually revealed to be husband, film producer Matt Kaplan) but you’d have to have your head buried in the sand to miss that she’s got that business acumen and unflinching drive, combined with a certain X-factor, that gets you to the top. It would be simple—and frankly, uninspired—to chalk it up to being skinny and blonde. Those things will only get you so far. I needed to know more.

But I wasn’t supposed to interview Alex Cooper. Our teams had initially agreed to do something different—turn the mic back on the host and have former "Call Her Daddy" guests ask her a few questions. What's the most rockstar thing you've ever done? What's your superpower? Lasagna or chicken parmesan? Unexpectedly—or now that I’ve spent more than an hour getting to know Cooper—perhaps expectedly, we’d have to switch courses at the last moment to something more Cooper’s speed. “I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience,” Cooper, 30, tells me during our interview, speaking about her management style. It’s a stick-to-itness that as a woman who is used to calling the shots here at Marie Claire as the editor in chief I find simultaneously kind of annoying, and also respect. Trusting herself, Cooper intimates, is key. “I know what's best for me. I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.”

When we speak on Zoom, Cooper joins me on a Friday morning in January, hair wet, sitting at a desk with a perfectly made bed behind her, “It's chaos, always,” she tells me laughing. “I’ve literally been on the phone I think with six people already this morning.”

I’m not surprised. Time is money when you’re building an empire(s) and there are only so many hours in the day. The energy is palpable. Me volleying questions, and Cooper answering back like a non-stop game of pickleball. Some may have found this to be overwhelming. I found it to be exhilarating. “I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest,” Cooper says, “but I want future generations to easily be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations.”

As the minutes ticked on, I’d venture to say that both of our guards came down, making way for two decidedly ambitious women who ask questions for a living to discuss everything from why Cooper’s sick of being compared to Joe Rogan and Howard Stern, to how she regains her confidence when it falters. What has it been like for Cooper to enter this new era of running the show; calling the shots and building something new?

Something Cooper said has stuck with me, and I replayed in my head for days after we spoke. “I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into the fact that they are a boss and or an entrepreneur,” Cooper says. I think she’s right. The environments we have to work in don’t always allow for women to fully show up as their complex, nuanced self. So, while I don’t think I’ve cracked the code of Alex Cooper, over the course of 90 minutes, I felt one step closer.

Before we start, I want to make sure things are good with you in L.A. considering the wildfires.

We have had so many family members and friends who have lost everything, but we are fine. We had multiple families staying with us—it was chaos, but in a good way. I felt like I was doing something on top of donating as much as I could. It's just been horrific.

It's been really devastating to watch from New York, but I'm happy that you're good and that we have this opportunity to talk today. I want to kick things off with everything you've got going on right now. You're entering a new era with the Sirius XM deal, Unwell Music, Unwell On Air, and the tours. How would you describe this moment in your career?

My entire career has really been me making decisions for my audience, the Daddy Gang. I've always wanted to give them more content and more of the world that I'm creating, so this new partnership with SiriusXM has allowed me to expand creatively. What I’ve been losing sleep over every night for the past few years is, How do I feed them? How do I give them the biggest, heartiest dinner that it can possibly have and then dessert and then more. It’s a dream come true that I'm now able to expand format wise.

Tell us a little bit about Unwell Music and Unwell On Air.

We already have these long, deep conversations on "Call Her Daddy," sometimes fun, sometimes intense, but I was trying to think, how do I literally be a part of their lives every single day? And I like to pregame with my friends to music. When you're working out, when you're in college, when I was studying for a test, I was a music person. Every part of my life has music involved and I was like, How do we not have our hands in any capacity in something music oriented?

I will be curating these songs and I'm also talking to the Daddy Gang about why I chose certain songs. Unwell On Air will be these live shows that are happening every single day. The first show is "The Daily Dirty," which will be four women talking, and every week I will join in one day.

The other show I'm very excited about is called "Dialed In." My audience will actually be able to call in and ask for advice. I can already tell the Daddy Gang are characters, so I know that they're going to be excited to show up and give their stories.

Hearing you talk about all of these things, my first thought is this idea of balance—and not in the like, women-can-have-it-all sort of way, but more literally. How do you handle everything that's on your plate at any given time?

I think most entrepreneurs can relate. Once you get your product up and running, there's nothing better than when you know you can go in a different direction and know that that product is still moving and still operating because you sat for long enough to make sure that the wheels will never fall off. Technically, I’ve waited so long to expand. I've always wanted to do these things, but I think I've learned to be patient. Seven years ago, I would've loved to start a podcast network, but was waiting for the time.

You told Forbes that you love pressure. What do you love about pressure? How do you not crumble?

I don't know my life without pressure. I probably put it on myself, even when it's a nice casual Tuesday and the birds are chirping and there's nothing to do. I’ve always wanted to be the best because I'm just very competitive with myself. I think I have this innate instinct within me; I literally get off on it.

Building this media company—I did not go to school for this. My husband being my business partner, I think people are probably like, Are you guys fucking insane that you guys work together? He is handling a different side of the business. I am mostly all creative and he is handling the brand partnerships and the IP extensions and all of the things that are really business heavy.

He's so creative, but we've had to decide when we overlap. We have the most fun when we come home from work and we pour ourselves a whiskey and download each other. It's this incredible creative session. It's a high, when as I call it with my team, we cracked the code. We did it, we figured it out. That's my high.

What does turning off look like for you?

It's something I'm working on constantly. My therapist always says take a bath and I'm like, Can I have my phone in the bath? I know this is different for everyone, but I can't turn off too long. Interviewing someone feels like a literal muscle I need to flex. Turning off though means, for me—it's going to sound weird—but Matt and my dream is we can do a weekend or a four day vacation, if we ever get to do that, which is rare. And on those trips we always say, let's do three to four hours a day of brainstorming, because we don't actually get to brainstorm as much as we wish every day because we're in the thick of it.

So what I'm hearing is brainstorming is you turning off.

I know, I know. I genuinely have a lot of happiness that comes from my body when I'm able to just free flow. But turning off is not what I'm interested in right now because I don't have kids right now. This is my baby. And you don't really get to turn off when you have kids, right?

No, then it really ramps up.

So, this is my child. When people ask that question, I'm like, Oh, well, what do moms do? Well, I feel like I'm a mother right now.

How do you think that the people who work at your company would describe you as a boss?

I think they would probably say, I'm very intense and very specific about what I like. They have shared with me that they appreciate that because I know exactly what I want. I think they would say that I am kind. I never wanted to work a corporate job, so I'm always going to keep the vibes high. But I think people know if you want to play hard, you have to work hard at this company. This is a startup at the end of the day.

I think they would say, I have very high expectations for people, but that's because I have very high expectations for myself. I also recognize that everyone needs to look out for themselves. I can help in any capacity, my door is always open in that sense. I hope someone at my company eventually starts a company that is a competitor of mine. If you're not trying to take my job, then I don't want you at the company. There's a fun competitive nature that's more uplifting rather than me just sitting in the corner and coming up with all the answers and they all just take orders.

Being a founder and a leader right now is political. There's a lot of social change that happens in workplaces and over the past decade, we've seen this—first with the #MeToo movement, and recently with DEI initiatives, many of which are being rolled back. How do you handle that responsibility? How do you feel your role in larger cultural change exists as a boss?

I'm not going to lie, it's hard. Matt and I have so many conversations about how we help company culture and how we foster a very positive and safe environment, while also staying true to the genuine integral part of who we are and why we started this company. We are trying to find the balance of infusing the intensity and the excitement of what we're building because I genuinely believe this is one of the coolest companies to work at right now. Our biggest goal for this past year was really having a cohesive culture. But there's still work to do.

You've acquired podcasts and you're hiring people to start podcasts on the network. What are you looking for in the creators that you're bringing onto Unwell?

Work ethic. There's so much oversaturation of content creators right now, and it's so incredible to see the way that TikTok has allowed for people to amplify their voices and to create content, but I genuinely believe long form content will always be the thing that moves the needle and that will have lasting power. The creators that I'm seeing thrive at my company are the ones that are having input in the edit process, in the pre-production, in the post-production. I'm not someone that believes in just being a talent. I'm not just interested in a podcast network. I want to help people build brands.

That’s really exciting to hear because I do think that there are a lot of creators from either marginalized communities or creators of color who are just looking for somebody to pay attention to them.

Absolutely. I think that's been such a huge conversation specifically on TikTok that I've seen. Why is this creator getting more attention than this creator? And it's a very valid point. What does it say about our culture that certain people are rising and other people are not rising? I agree.

Do you think about that when you're implementing policies within the company that you and Matt are building?

Every single day. Every single day, I'm trying to gauge, how do we continue to not just build a product that we're building, but also make genuine change in people's lives? Expanding to 50 people now and bringing people together from Matt’s world and then bringing in new people from my world, we are sitting together, looking at our slate, and thinking what is the next year going to look like and how can we do better?

When you're working with these younger creators like Alix Earle and Madeline Argy, what sort of advice are you offering them?

Alix and Madeline are such different creators. With Alix, it’s interesting to think about her in a long-term format. You don't want to change Alix Earle, you want to help her amplify and also, if anything, expand and show people more of her and she's now being able to talk about more sincere topics. The podcast has enabled her to feel like she doesn't have to be as performative in moments and she can genuinely get down to what's going on that week. Madeline, on the other hand, was an absolute sheer talent of just like, This girl can talk. How does a girl not have a podcast? I basically have a system that I've created within "Call Her Daddy," and I've shifted the format per show, but I'm able to sit down with every single creator and be like, You should look at it through this lens. Without giving away my secret sauce, I think I've been able to do it for every single creator.

You do have this secret sauce of course, and it's led to an amazing amount of success. I was reading in the New York Times, though, where you said success made you feel a little more insecure and that you have to prove even more that you deserve this. I'm curious if you still feel that way?

In a different way. I think when I said it back then, I genuinely felt a little out of my league when I was starting Unwell. I was more of a creator than a business woman. I felt people were looking at me with like, Oh, she made all this money, but now can she convert? Now it's not insecurity, it's more an awareness of the things I can get better on. But I will say, I think in the past year running this company has given me so much confidence. I've gotten to a place where I’m not getting down on myself for things that are normal to be experiencing. Media is so hard. For a lot of people that aren't in media, you look it and think oh, it's so glamorous. Absolutely. We have such incredible opportunities and there's privilege and there's things that come from it, but it doesn't mean it's not a grind.

It's a job.

Yeah. This shit is not for the weak.

I'm curious about who you go to for business advice. Obviously Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sports. But I'm more curious about who you're going to for business advice now. Who's the last person you called to ask them a question about business?

I would say without a doubt, Matt is one of the smartest people I've ever met, and I think every single person at our company is in awe of Matt and his ability to reinvent the wheel and come up with ideas and formulate concepts that have never been done. My CMO, TJ Marchetti, is such a brilliant marketing mind in terms of marketing.

What's interesting about your career is that you're constantly surrounded by men. It feels like it's a male-dominated industry. Who are the women in your life that you feel you can really lean on?

My main "Call Her Daddy" producer is my go-to every single day. I'm speaking to this woman, and she is without a doubt, my right hand. I would not be able to produce "Call Her Daddy" in the capacity that I'm doing without her. Our head of podcasting and the network is this woman Rory [Armstrong]. She is truly so brilliant in the way that she sees the evolution of this space. Our head of our brand strategy, Ashley Lewis, has been absolutely transformative for live events and our partnerships business. Matt jokes, it's Matt and TJ—and then it's all women.

I want to talk shop about "Call Her Daddy" specifically. I saw a talk that you did with the New York Times and you shared that you felt that celebrities feel safe with you. I thought that was a really interesting word. Why do you think they feel safe with you?

I have been on many shows—not to put other shows down—but the host is looking five inches to the right of my head and reading a teleprompter and asking me questions. It's very dehumanizing. Almost like, Wait, I don't even know if you actually knew my name. Oprah was really the first person that was actually listening and sitting and having these in-depth conversations. A lot of what I'm doing goes back to just what my mother taught me from a young age, which is making someone feel seen and heard and understood and making them feel like you actually care about what they're saying. Because I do. Yes, I care about the celebrity sitting across from me, but I also care about my audience, so I'm also trying to get as much out of them as I can for my audience because they're going to learn something today.

What I'm hearing is it's that you get them; you understand what they want. I'm curious though, what do you think people, journalists, the media get wrong about you?

I think people don't see as much—understandably because of the empire I'm trying to build—I'm a very easygoing, funny, weird person. I love to joke around. I love to have fun. As a woman in media, it's very hard to present yourself in a way that is digestible for everyone. As we know, as two women sitting here, it's very challenging to see some men in the media say things. I always joke to my friends, Imagine if I said that? I would literally be canceled. I would be considered a bitch. I would be considered an egomaniac. There's this fine line that I think I've had to tow of what I want to show and present, because I genuinely still believe, sadly, that the world thinks that women can only still be one dimensional.

A lot of times, I'll see in the media I came off too brash and aggressive in the way I was speaking, but it's probably because I feel like I'm climbing an uphill battle. Every room I'm walking into is like a DealBook, just filled with men. I'm feeling like I have to be a little bit more, I have to talk a little bit harder about my business, and I have to sell it harder because everyone's going to doubt that. Whereas if Dave Portnoy is walking into a room or if Joe Rogan's walking into a room, people are just going to be more at ease with them as complex humans. Whereas if I'm at all complex, people see it as, She's fake. I don't trust her. I don't believe her. I don't think we've cracked the code on how to embrace and celebrate and trust women who are running companies or who are leaning into being a boss or an entrepreneur.

You're always compared to Howard Stern or Joe Rogan. Are you tired of that comparison?

I'm exhausted, more so because—I'm not saying I should ever be compared to an Oprah or a Barbara Walters or any female host or anything, but why not just lead with that? They're diminishing women who have done this before and putting the men continuously on the pedestal. I hope one day someone's asked, Do you find yourself similar to Alex Cooper? And they don't just say, Do you find yourself similar to Joe Rogan? Because it doesn't take an idiot to recognize our content couldn't be more different. It's literally night and day. Same with me and Howard Stern. I'm not shitting on them. I'm just saying it's not even in the same realm. Would a man ever be asked, Do you think that you are similar to Alex Cooper? Sadly, I don't think a man would ever be asked that. So why am I constantly being asked if I think that I'm similar to men?

Totally. I want to ask you a question that you asked Jojo Siwa. Why do you think people on the internet have such strong opinions about you?

I definitely think it goes back to what we were just speaking about. Even saying this, if it gets clipped on TikTok, I know it will get probably shit. But, I think people are very uncomfortable with confident women. And I am not just saying men. I think women are very uncomfortable, too. It makes me sad for women who are made to feel uncomfortable by confident women because I think it, again, just goes back to misogyny. They have been trained to not have a voice; you shouldn't speak up. A lot of what "Call Her Daddy" has done for women is encouragement; say whatever the fuck you want to say and speak up. Even if people in a room roll their eyes or you get kicked out of the room, at least you can leave with your head held high, being like, I still stand for what I believe in, and I'm not going to just shrink.

I understand a calm, loving, more quiet woman is easier to digest, but I want for the future generations to be able to acknowledge and lift up other women that are going for it and are going toe-to-toe in moments with the men and are making conversations. That's all I want to do is create conversations. I hope I never shut up. We need more women leading the charge in the conversation, but we also need women to stop tearing other women down.

I'm so proud of what I have accomplished and that does not make me an egomaniac and that does not make me cocky. That just means that I've worked really hard to build confidence, and as women, we should all rally together to know how fucking hard it is to have confidence as a woman.

What do you do when your confidence falters, though?

I try as hard as I can to go back to my core values as a human being. When my confidence falters, I try to remind myself who I am and where I came from, and that little girl in Pennsylvania would have done anything to be sitting where I am and to hold my head high when people are doubting me.

Let's talk about money. Everyone knows about the deal, but I'm very curious about how your relationship to it has changed now that you definitely have money. How has your perspective on money and worth sort of evolved over these last few years?

Listen, no one gets into the entertainment business to make money, especially when you're on the producing side. I didn't intend to be a host. I always wanted to be a director. I always wanted to direct films, and I knew there's not, unless you are literally one of the greats, there's not that much money in that. So, for a lot of my life money was not at the forefront. But once I saw how much Barstool was making, I was like, wait, can we get a cut of that? At that point it was about just knowing your worth and fighting for that. Now, I feel so fortunate. I don't even think the word fortunate begins to encompass what I feel towards what I have because it's not lost on me that literally all of that is because of my audience.

Do you feel like you've made it? Or what will need to happen for you to feel like you've made it?

Open my journal and you'll read: Today, we made it. Yesterday, we didn't. Tomorrow we're fucked. I go back and forth every day. I have moments of I made it. When I sat across from the Vice President of the United States, no matter anyone's political opinions, that was wild. Being searched by Secret Service and going to D.C., that was one of those moments in my career I'll never forget. Being on the cover of Forbes is another one. I remember when I tried to put my application in be a "30 Under 30" back at Barstool and didn't get accepted, so now to be on the cover, yes, that’s an I made it moment. I don't know if I'll ever have the I made it moment in terms of creative capacity. Matt and I talk about this a lot, will we ever get to the point with our company where we're making less movies and we're just going for Academy Awards and we're just making one movie, you know what I mean? Maybe stylistic decisions that I can make at some point, will change, but I know I will always be, in some capacity, creating for the rest of my life because it's what brings me joy.

You alluded to this a little earlier, but I'm curious, what keeps you up at night?

I think it changes every week. Certain weeks it will be like, oh my gosh, people misinterpreted a clip from "Call Her Daddy" and I'm having to do more damage control; making sure that people know me authentically and what I’m trying to get across. I would say other times in business when I'm negotiating a deal, I'm literally in the shower, I'm brushing my teeth, I'm doing my laundry, I'm walking my dogs, I'm in bed with my husband, and every turn I'm up at night. The creative also keeps me up at night. Is the product getting too stale? Was that episode as good as it could be?

Last couple of questions: What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received? And what’s the worst?

I'm going to be really honest. I'm sure I have received good advice in my life, but I have no answer to this question because I feel like for so many people giving me advice is hard for someone to understand what I'm going through. The best advice I have for myself is you always have the answer, so take as much advice as you can get, but usually I'm adjusting it or tweaking it in some capacity. I've never really taken someone's advice and completely listened to it.

The worst piece of advice is probably that you could restart the show and IP doesn't matter. And I want to clarify, I don't look back at that time anymore of cattiness. I genuinely look back and I'm so happy. I stuck to what I believed in during moments of people trying to convince me otherwise. I always go back to that core of trusting myself. And that goes back to the advice question. I know what's best for me, and I will listen to people and I will sit in rooms and I will go back and forth and have good dialogues, but my gut has mostly never been wrong.

One more question about the podcast specifically. Who's been your toughest interview?

I would say RuPaul because I wanted to impress my absolute queen. I wanted so badly to have Ru love me. Recognizing my privilege, I was so aware that I needed to show up for this person, and I needed to prove why they should be sitting with me. I worked so hard in that interview to stay toe-to-toe with them. I really wanted to garner the respect. I knew that Ru would love the show, but they just had to have a good experience.

So what does being a mogul mean to you?

I think being a mogul sounds like something I would put on my desk somewhere if I had a big intense desk and I was trying to be all fancy, but really it's being an entrepreneur. It's being nimble. It's recognizing that my industry can turn on a dime. It's being inquisitive, but also sticking to what I believe in. It's being very, very determined while also maintaining a sense of calmness in absolute chaos. It's being a leader to people who I want to bring along on the journey with me, but also trusting in myself in big moments and not getting too comfortable having teams behind me. I am trying to consistently also pave the way, like I said earlier, for authenticity.

I do think anyone around me in business would say, Alex Cooper is tough to work for because she will not bend if it does not make sense for her and her brand and her audience. The amount of money passed up, the amount of opportunities passed up, and I welcome people trying to convince me, but I have stayed so true. Being a mogul is recognizing the complexities that come with, like I said, being a host, a personality, an entrepreneur, a leader, a business woman, a friend, a wife, a daughter. There's all of that, and trying to wrap it into one and trying to continue to push myself forward while also not losing myself and also creating new shit. I want to create new conversations. I want to create new IP. I want to create new ventures. I want to expand. I want to acquire, I want to do it all. But being patient.

It all comes back to patience.

Patience. Calm down, Alex.

Interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Alex Cooper Is Marie Claire’s Mogul and Muse | January 2025 Cover Shoot - YouTube

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