What happens when a Real Housewives editor decides to kill off the Housewives himself? Timothy Hedden has spent 25 years behind the scenes of reality TV, cutting Real Housewives of Atlanta, New Jersey, and Potomac, plus Mob Wives. Now he's channeled all of it into his debut novel, Dead Housewives of Philadelphia, a campy, dark-comedy murder mystery out today. And this is his very first podcast interview.

Timothy's path to the edit bay was anything but direct: a would-be actor kicked off the set of Law & Order, a fur salesman at Saks Fifth Avenue, a stand-up comic, and a 38-year-old production assistant at the Food Network before working his way from audience coordinator to editor. He opens up to Zach about meeting the Housewives, why the shows have become so formulaic, and why the women on screen are far more than the characters they play.

He also shares, with remarkable candor, his life as a long-term HIV survivor: diagnosed in 1988, a drug trial that saved his life, the moment he told his mother, and why a run-in with a young guy at Pride pushed him to write his award-winning essay The AIDS Dinosaur.

In this episode:

• 25 years in reality TV and meeting Kenya Moore, Phaedra, Teresa, Dolores, and more
• Why Dolores is the inspiration for one of the book's characters
• Mob Wives, Big Ang, and the night Timothy and his husband ended up on camera
• From Food Network PA to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to Housewives editor
• The prime-time shoot that made him quit producing
• Meeting his husband of 20 years after a dramatic gym transformation
• Writing as a dyslexic author, and his first novel that almost got published
• Living with HIV since the '80s and the life insurance policy he bought to cover his own funeral
• The drug trial at Rockefeller University that saved his life
• PrEP, condoms, and what younger gay men don't understand about the epidemic
• Inside Dead Housewives of Philadelphia: Bailey, Skylar, a séance, and a ratings stunt gone wrong
• His dream cast, and why Kenya Moore should play Erin
• Running into Andy Cohen after a week of editing his footage
• Why reality stars are real people, and why we all need a page-turner right now

Links:

• Dead Housewives of Philadelphia: https://deadhousewives.com/
  Timothy Hedden: https://www.instagram.com/heddenwrites/
  https://heddenwrites.com/

Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ

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In this solo This Is Everything episode, Zach Randles-Friedman takes on the exhaustion so many people are feeling right now. He talks about doom scrolling and a news cycle that feels like a horror show. He covers a job market where AI-polished applications flood every listing, grocery prices that jumped his weekly Instacart order from $200 to $312, and a McDonald's hot fudge sundae that now costs $6.99 on DoorDash. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Zach reacts to Senator Tuberville's "furry pilots" claims, to rhetoric targeting trans people, and to calls for violence against queer people. He also explains why he believes the November midterms matter so much. Through it all, he finds signs of hope: strangers being a little kinder, a TikTok plant auction that brings him joy, and the comfort of good friends. He closes with simple ways to feel better, including limiting screen time, volunteering, FaceTiming with a heads-up, sending voice notes, guarding your social battery, and getting help when you need it. It's a candid reminder that if you're in a funk, you're not alone. Intro music by Six Foot Five.

Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What do people really think when no one is watching? Startup founder Kiko Zang joins Zach to talk about the gap between how we perform online and what we actually believe, and why she's betting $3.6 million on closing it.

Born in China and sent to an all-girls boarding school in small-town New Zealand at just 12, Kiko grew up as one of only a handful of Asian people in town. She opens up about the questions, the exclusion, and the moments of outright hostility that shaped her, including a story she's never shared publicly before. From there, her path winds through jazz conservatory, USC, the H-1B lottery, seven years in Shanghai, and a year and a half in Singapore.

Now she's building Chomp, an app that asks you what you think and what you think everyone else thinks. The results are often surprising: Zach guesses wrong on both questions Kiko puts to him live on the show.

In this episode:

• Growing up Chinese in a town of 50,000 on New Zealand's South Island
• Why her parents sent her abroad, and why she's not mad about it
• Racism, ignorance, and becoming "prickly" as protection
• Why "being different" may be the most universal experience there is
• Zach on once wishing he were straight, and why he'd never trade it now
• How social media rewards people for pretending to be authentic
• The perception-versus-reality gap, and how algorithms make the world seem more extreme than it is
• Would you cheat for $100,000? The surprising Chomp answer
• Saying "I love you" in the first month: red flag or green flag? 93% say green
• The couple who hit a 100-day streak answering Chomp questions together
• Why brand partnerships hurt user enthusiasm
• Kiko's bigger vision: a more honest internet and AI that understands lived experience
• Texting after a first date, and whether phone calls are now a "what the f—" moment
• Why Kiko held her wedding in New Zealand

Links:

• Chomp: https://chomp.fyi/
• https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chomp-can-you-read-the-room/id6758931572
• Follow Kiko: https://www.instagram.com/kikochomps/
• 500 users to receive 1 month free https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6758931572&code=EVERYTHINGCHOMPS

Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.