Love to See It with Emma and Claire

Time to take a virtual trip back to 2009. We were still youthful college students who hadn’t been swept up into Bachelor Nation’s inescapable pull though we did have the same ill-advised layers and flat-ironed side bangs as some of the contestants – and a handsome single dad was learning just how fickle reality TV fame can be. That’s right, we’re revisiting Jason Mesnick’s season! The first, and to our knowledge only, Jewish Bachelor, he was also the first but far from only Bachelor to dump his winner and then pursue his runner-up for the cameras. A groundbreaker. And on this episode we’re joined by the man himself, Jason Mesnick, for our spotlight interview. Our calls to action this week: The Loveland Foundation Therapy Fund National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s been two weeks since our last episode And we can’t believe how much has happened since then. Like… the whole Bachelorette season might be different? But before we get to that, we need to take a trip down memory lane to 2010. Obama was still president, none of us were yet addicted to Instagram, and the word “influencer” had barely entered the lexicon. And former Facebook employee Ali Fedotowsky was wearing many layered tank tops on her televised journey to find love. Our calls to action this week: Liberty Hill COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund for Community Organizing: “This emergency fund is designed to support immediate community organizing needs on the frontlines and fuel emergency advocacy efforts in Los Angeles County to protect the most vulnerable (Black, Brown, Asian, Indigenous and queer communities) during this time of unimaginable upheaval due to the COVID-19 crisis.” https://www.libertyhill.org/form/covid-19-rapid-response-fund-for-community-organizing Native Americans in Philanthropy COVID-19 emergency response fund The COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund is designed to distribute funds efficiently and swiftly to Native nonprofit organizations and tribal programs that need it most. Initially, funds are being prioritized in high-concentration areas – California, New Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, New York, Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe and COVID-19 hotspots. https://www.firstnations.org/covid-19-emergency-response-fund/ Know Your Rights Camp COVID-19 relief fund The fund helps black and brown communities, which are disproportionately affected by Covid-19 by focusing on food, shelter relief, education, PPE equipment and incarcerated populations. https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/covid19?form=KYRC-Covid-19-Relief-Fund See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s 2007. The era of sweetheart necklines, poorly-structured empire waists, and, of course, the most hated man in America. No, not George W. Bush. Brad Womack, the slow-talking, monotone, chiseled Texan who walked onto our TV screens and away with zero lady hearts. This week, we dive deep into his TWO seasons with Ashley Spivey. Ashley has been a vocal part of Bachelor Nation for so long that it’s almost hard to remember where it all began -- as a contestant on Brad Womack’s second season of The Bachelor. Our calls to action this week: Riot Ribs feeds people and protesters in Portland, Oregon. Find $riotribs on CashApp or @riotribs on Venmo. Oregon Justice Center is fighting for criminal justice reform and providing legal services: https://ojrc.info/donate See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There was no new episode this week, so instead, we’re here to introduce you to a new member of the HuffPost podcast family. D Is For Desire is hosted by our colleague Noah Michelson and explores sex, sexuality, relationships and love from angles you could have never imagined in health class. You may have heard a trailer for the show play during a break on last week’s podcast, but we’re here to give you a chance to listen to a full episode about a topic Bachelor fans know all too well: Romance! And the lack of it! And questioning the very concept of it! In this episode of D Is For Desire, we hear from Joci, a woman who thought there was something wrong with her until she was 46 years old, when she discovered the term “Aromantic.” The first three episodes of D Is For Desire are already available, with more episodes premiering on Fridays, this summer. You can listen and subscribe to D Is For Desire on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d-is-for-desire/id1516511773 Or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/d-is-for-desire-aromantic-romantic-orientation_n_5efb6598c5b612083c537b08 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The year was 2002. We had it all: Dark neutral lipsticks, blurry camera phones, and, of course, The Bachelor! We’re not saying that The Bachelor took our live show ideas, but we’re just saying, that if you liked Monday’s recap of Alex Michel’s season, you’ll REALLY like the deep dives that we did as part of our live tour last year. Way to steal our thunder, ABC. But, alas, we persevere. We also got to revisit a slightly less familiar season -- one we don’t know better than our home phone numbers -- the first-ever Bachelorette season starring Trista Rehn. This week, we talked to LaNease Adams, who made history with Alex Michel as the first-ever on-screen kiss in Bachelor history. We wanted to dive even deeper with LaNease, so we reached out and chatted with her about her time on the show, that kiss, the racism she dealt with from viewers, and more. Our call to action this week: donate to organizations that are responding to COVID-19 related evictions. The Human Utility, which helps people pay water bills in Michigan and Baltimore https://www.detroitwaterproject.org/ The National Low Income Housing coalition has collected emergency rental assistance programs, state by state https://nlihc.org/rental-assistance See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons -- Ever!, ABC is keeping us in the purgatory of 2016 with JoJo’s brutal season of The Bachelorette (aka the Trumpiest season of “The Bachelorette” ever.) We covered some highlights -- and lowlights -- from JoJo’s season during Monday night’s special, but we wanted to continue digging deeper into the stories of contestants who didn’t get as much screen time. This week we chatted with Grant Kemp, who appeared on JoJo’s season of The Bachelorette and season three of Bachelor in Paradise. Our call to action this week: Black Trans Travel fund, “a grassroots, mutual aid based organization developed for the purpose of providing Black transgender women with the financial resources necessary for them to be able to self-determine and access their safest travel options.” https://www.blacktranstravelfund.com/donate See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, we took a trip back to 2016 to revisit the last pre-Trump season of “The Bachelor.” Though we got to relive some of the good, bad and cringeworthy times of Ben’s season on Monday’s Bachelor special, we wanted to continue speaking to contestants whose stories haven’t been in the spotlight. We had the pleasure of chatting with Amber James, who was on both Chris Soules’ and Ben Higgins’ seasons of The Bachelor, AND the second season of Bachelor In Paradise, as well as Jami Letain, who was on Ben’s season of The Bachelor and BIP 3. Our call to action this week: go to tinyurl.com/EmailBreonnaTaylor to email the Kentucky Attorney General & Governor demanding that the officers who killed Breonna Taylor all be fired and charged. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A lot has happened in the weeks since then-police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd. This horrifying event sparked mass protests against racism and police brutality, around the country and around the globe. Since then, arrests have been made, public schools have cut ties with police departments, white CEOs and Editors In Chief have been forced to step down, and famous reality TV stars have been fired. And it seems – maybe – that space has finally been opened up for anti-racist fans of The Bachelor franchise to not just demand real change, but actually get it. Bachelor alumni who often avoid politics on their feeds in favor of shilling products, were suddenly put in a position where they had to speak up or signal complicity. Their comments sections became spaces for full-blown debate. Rachel Lindsay and Becca Kufrin had a candid, raw, difficult conversation about race on the official Bachelor podcast feed. Just days after a grassroots campaign for Bachelor diversity was launched and Rachel threatened to sever ties with the franchise altogether, “The Bachelor” named Matt James – the founder of nonprofit ABC Food Tours who was supposed to be a contestant on Clare Crawley’s season – as the first Black Bachelor. Because so much has been going on, we wanted to dedicate a whole podcast episode to diving a bit deeper into this current moment of Black Lives Matter activism, and how it is playing out in Bachelor Nation. First, we spoke to two of the Bachelor Diversity Campaign's co-creators, Ria Ali and friend of the pod Brett Vergara about the grassroots campaign that now has more than 100,000 signatures. Then we caught up with Rachel Lindsay, the morning that the news about Matt James becoming the franchise’s first Black Bachelor broke. Finally, Taylor Nolan, who has been an outspoken voice for change within The Bachelor franchise, shared some very practical advice for white people who want to be actively anti-racist. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, we go back to where it all started – for this podcast that is. Kaitlyn’s season was the first one that Here to Make Friends recapped, all the way back in 2015. By then, The Bachelor was more consistently casting people of color on the show – but they didn’t often get far or have very positive portrayals on the show. Of Kaitlyn’s contestants of color, only Ian Thomson – who had a very rough exit – got any real screen time during Monday’s recap. Once again, the supercut approach made the show even whiter. But Ian wasn’t the only Black man to have a very unflattering storyline on the show. Kupah James left at the beginning of episode four, after a painful conversation with Kaitlyn about their lack of connection and a dramatic exit interview. Jonathan Holloway, a soft-spoken single dad, made it a bit further despite being #TeamBritt. To find out more about that messy exit and what it was like in Kaitlyn’s Bachelorette mansion, we talked to Kupah and Jonathan about their time on the show. It may seem like the protests are simmering down, or at least like they’re out of the news cycle or your Twitter feed. But people are still in the streets, fighting for a better world, and it’s incumbent on us to stay tuned in and to keep doing what we can. As promised, we are going to give our community calls to action each week: (1) The Okra Project – “The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them.” https://www.theokraproject.com/ (2) Native Women’s Association of Canada – Canada is having its own difficult conversations about racism and police brutality, and many of these dialogues center around police violence against First Nations peoples https://www.nwac.ca/ (3) Subscribe to 2 Black Girls 1, support their Patreon https://www.patreon.com/2blackgirls1rose See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are coming back in the midst of a global pandemic and a series of nationwide (and global!) protests against racism and specifically police brutality. We always want the podcast to feel like it’s adding something to the world, not taking up space. So the context of the world has changed how we will be approaching this season. On this episode, we have a short discussion about Sean Lowe’s season, which was the first Bachelor season after a class-action lawsuit was filed against the show by two men, Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson, alleging that “the deliberate exclusion of people of color from the roles of the Bachelor and Bachelorette” violated their civil rights. One of the results of trimming the season down to spotlights on its final six or so contestants – and fan fave Sarah Herron – was that the only woman of color spotlighted was Catherine. None of the black contestants really got any screen time. But two black women actually had notable arcs on the season – Leslie Hughes, who made it to week four, and Robyn Howard, who made it to week five. Leslie garnered a glam one-on-one, the annual Pretty Woman shopping spree date, and Robyn, when she wasn’t getting mixed up in Tierra drama, had a pretty frank conversation with Sean about race. To look back at that season, the first for several years that even had any black contestants, we talked to Leslie and Robyn about their time on the show. Links: National Bail Fund - https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory Bachelor Diversity Campaign - https://www.change.org/p/abc-a-campaign-for-anti-racism-in-the-bachelor-franchise Follow @bachdiversity on Instagram and Twitter See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices