Content Gone Cruel | Madonna, Jeff Lewis & Cindy Crawford’s Son

[00:00:00] Chalene Johnson : What’s up, buttercup? Thank you so much for choosing to listen to the show today, spending some time with me. Today, we’re gonna talk about three very different stories that I actually think are kind of connected in some way, because they’re about the type of content that we consume. It’s the kind of content that, honestly, my brain just doesn’t want it anymore, and it involves a show that I absolutely once loved, but now it’s making a comeback and I refuse to watch it.

[00:00:29] Chalene Johnson : We’re gonna talk about Madonna’s appearance at the VMAs, and aging, and sexuality, and this weird double standard that I think I’ve finally figured out why people feel one way about Madonna but they didn’t feel that way about Dolly Parton. Then there’s the third story that is much darker. It’s what happens online when people are experiencing a tragedy, and then creators decide that that is great content, and then they use this horrible moment in someone’s life to get clicks.

[00:01:02] Chalene Johnson : It’s weird. I just think we’ve crossed the line from being entertained by other people’s lives to looking to be entertained by other people’s takedown or destruction. I mean, don’t get it twisted, I love the tea, I love some gossip, for sure, but some of this stuff is just… I don’t know, it just feels so negative.

[00:01:23] Chalene Johnson : I don’t think it’s good for us. By the way, I wanna clear something up. Quite a few of you have said, “Chalene, so you’re not gonna cover true crime anymore?” No, no, no. I’m absolutely still gonna cover true crime. I’m still gonna cover stories that are just horrific. But what I was trying to clarify a few weeks ago is that I’m not gonna cover a disgusting, terrible story just because it’s disgusting and terrible.

[00:01:48] Chalene Johnson : My metric, my meter for covering that is, like, there needs to be some, like, either unique take on it that I have or something that I, I think we can all learn from. So if there’s just a story that’s just horrific, and gut-wrenching, and gross, I’m not gonna cover it just to cover it. That’s all. But of course I’m still gonna cover true crime.

[00:02:07] Chalene Johnson : Of course I will. I’ve also got a hooker hack for you today, girlies. I’ve been forgetting to stick those in these episodes. Don’t let me forget. I also have an update on the Miami penthouse and my unhinged plan where I’m gonna ask you to help me figure out how to decorate this new place that we’re moving into in less than a month, and how in the hell am I gonna do this?

[00:02:29] Chalene Johnson : I’m gonna need your help. All right. We’ve got a lot to cover. Let’s get to it. I was such a fan of the show Flipping Out with Jeff Lewis. It was a Bravo show. It, it ran for 11 seasons. It started back in 2007, went all the way to 2018. It basically followed Jeff Lewis, who was… I think he’s a Southern California native.

[00:02:50] Chalene Johnson : He’s a super funny gay guy who, what was funny about him is just I guess how impatient he got and how he was just always flipping out. I loved the show. I loved the people who were on the show, like, you rooted for them. His housekeeper, his basically right-hand woman, her name was Jenni. What was her last name, you guys?

[00:03:13] Chalene Johnson : I know you’re screaming it right now. Jenni Pulos. She was amazing, and she was, like, his best friend and an employee. Really, like I said, his right-hand man… Or, sorry, right-hand woman, I guess you could say. She was just, like, so amazing, and they had this great friendship on the show. And then, I don’t know, like, part of the show suddenly turned into, like, how he was constantly getting ridiculously upset with the people that he worked with, and just handling those confrontations in a way that was so inappropriate, in my opinion.

[00:03:45] Chalene Johnson : But the show was still very entertaining. So then you had to wonder, like, how much of this was for the show? I mean, like, he went through Jenni. He had a boyfriend when the show first started, his name was Ryan. And then he had another boyfriend named Gage, who became his business partner, and they later had a child together, Monroe.

[00:04:04] Chalene Johnson : Their breakup was on the show. It was very public. Then, after his Bravo show ends, he gets a radio show, right? Like, on Radio Andy. It’s interesting. He has a lot of… a ton of reality TV people that will appear on the show. He gets this new boyfriend, whose name was Stu. The way his radio program works is kinda like his…

[00:04:24] Chalene Johnson : actually a lot like his TV show, where there’s, like, reoccurring characters. He’s ripping them. He calls them the chumps. He’s got this, like, super duper loyal fan base, which he himself calls a cult. And I’m sure because I’m about to say some negative things about him, some of those people are gonna come for me.

[00:04:47] Chalene Johnson : Oh, well. But here’s the crazy thing about it, is you feel like you’re getting a little bit of a sense of people who are in his real life, like his real housekeeper, his real best friend, his real boyfriend, his real close friends. You know, I guess if you listen to my Patreon, you know some of the, I guess you could say the, quote, “important people in my life.”

[00:05:08] Chalene Johnson : My friends, my colleagues, some of my coworkers. Like, you know those names, right? And then it’s interesting because if a period of time goes by and I haven’t mentioned a particular person, I will get questioned. And sometimes it’s like, well, mm, I’m just- I’m not gonna go into it because maybe there’s a personal reason, but, like, nine times out of 10, I can’t help myself.

[00:05:32] Chalene Johnson : And on Patreon, I just, I spill all of that. But nonetheless, on Instagram, every once in a while I’ll put up one of those question stickers, and I’ll get, like, really weird… Like, I swear it is the person who’s actually asking the question. They’ll be like, “Hey, whatever happened to you and so and so?” And I’m like, that’s so weird.

[00:05:49] Chalene Johnson : I haven’t posted about that person in, like, nine, 10 years. Why do I keep getting asked about this particular person? My hunch is they just wanna know whatever happened. Sometimes, I’ve talked about this, sometimes I just kinda make a mental decision that somebody isn’t in alignment with me, and I just slowly let it fade, and I’m sure people have done that to me, too.

[00:06:17] Chalene Johnson : I’m not talking about, like, someone who’s, like, a best friend or anything. And I just think it’s weird, because I will get these questions on Instagram. Like, I’ll post one of those question stickers, like ask me anything, and all of a sudden that name will pop up, and it will be someone who’s with a private account.

[00:06:31] Chalene Johnson : They’ll say, like, “Hey, whatever happened to you and so and so?” I’m like, okay, that’s so strange. That wasn’t, like, someone who I was, like, really close with. Therefore, I know it is probably the person who’s asking the question is the person who they’re asking the question about. And so if that’s you and you’re listening to this show, girl, just send me a text message, ’cause that’s weird to be anonymous.

[00:06:52] Chalene Johnson : But also it’s a little bit of indicative of probably why I decided it was a relationship I didn’t think I should continue to invest in, because that just is a sign of, like, really strange communication. I prefer to invest my time with healthy people. Nonetheless, back to Jeff Lewis. So Jeff Lewis has these people that seem to be his actual friends, and then he has these major falling outs with them.

[00:07:22] Chalene Johnson : And I was thinking about how the fact he’s got another new show, and I was also thinking about the fact how much I loved the original Flipping Out. I think his new show is called Still Flipping Out, and how I’m not gonna watch it, because in my opinion, I think it’s so detrimental what it is he does. I think he’s turned building and then destroying or blowing up friendships into entertainment.

[00:07:45] Chalene Johnson : When I have, in the past, done a few Patreons because I’ve had a falling out with somebody I’ve done a few episodes, and I will say they’re probably some of the most popular episodes I’ve ever done because we love juice. We love the tea. But I would never sacrifice a relationship. Like, that’s painful to go through things like that.

[00:08:09] Chalene Johnson : It’s not fun for anyone, and I could never imagine intentionally doing that for the purpose of entertainment. But in my opinion, it sure seems like that’s what he’s doing. Seems like he develops these relationships. He kind of platforms the relationship. He allows the listeners, the viewers, to get to know these people.

[00:08:31] Chalene Johnson : He grows their prominence in some cases. I think they’re real relationships, and I think they really deteriorate. I think the way that they deteriorate sometimes is, like, maybe it’s legit. Like, it, maybe it starts off that way. I mean, e- anyone can have a disagreement. You can have disagreements with your friends, but what happens with him is it becomes, in my opinion, like, really quite nasty and cruel for the sake of entertainment.

[00:09:06] Chalene Johnson : Like, I think about the way he treated Jenny Pulos back in the day. Just my opinion, but I, I think that he’s also a jealous person, and when people start to gain popularity, I think it makes him feel threatened. And if you think that I’m talking about this happening to just a few people, let me give you a list.

[00:09:29] Chalene Johnson : Okay, so I already talked about his three previous boyfriends. Then he had, like, from Jenny, he went to a woman named Megan. Megan was a recent example. She was a longtime friend. She became, like, one of his design employees. She was a central, quote, “character” on his radio show, The Chumps, and it was really strange.

[00:09:49] Chalene Johnson : So Heather McDonald, who I’ve had on the show before, and I’m a big fan of Heather McDonald. I’m gonna tell you a little bit of this story. I’m, I’m a big fan of Heather McDonald. She’s a comedian. She’s got a great podcast called Juicy Scoop. She had a falling out with him, and it was brutal on her. I mean, absolutely brutal When that all happened, people on the internet started sending Heather McDonald clips and episodes of any other podcaster who had ever talked about Heather McDonald.

[00:10:20] Chalene Johnson : And so she was in self-protection mode and basically just started blocking everybody. I was one of those people that she blocked. I reached out to her, I’m like, “Girl, let me send you the clip of where I talked about you. This is, like, a joke that you were making about yourself, about you and your husband being cheap, specifically your husband being cheap, and, like, I talked about that, a joke that you’ve made yourself.

[00:10:41] Chalene Johnson : But here’s the clip so you can listen to it.” Anyways, she completely blocked me, and you know what? I don’t take it personal. I understand that what she was going through was a major trauma, and in my opinion, what Jeff did to her on the air And the accusations he made about her were devastating. So I never took it personal.

[00:11:04] Chalene Johnson : You know, I can’t reach out, I’m blocked, but I still give her my money ’cause I still pay for her Patreon, and I still think she’s fricking hysterical, and I understand it. But he hasn’t just done it to Heather McDonald, he also has done it to people who regularly appeared on his show, like Brandi and Julie, Chris De Lamus, which was, like, one of his best friends for a while.

[00:11:24] Chalene Johnson : Then when he had that falling out with Heather, like almost to get back at Heather, he invited a guest who was always on the Heather McDonald show, another comedian, another male comedian named Justin Martindale, he was super funny, and he, like, brought him in onto the Jeff Lewis show. It was just… I’m like, this is so high school.

[00:11:44] Chalene Johnson : This is so middle school. But I checked my facts, checked my sources, counted up, let’s see, I could list them all off, but I counted up 30 names of people who were featured as, like, close friendships or regular characters on his show that eventually he just takes them down, in my opinion. Okay, this isn’t about whether Jeff Lewis is funny or not, he is.

[00:12:13] Chalene Johnson : He’s really funny. And conflict was always a part of what made the show funny and entertaining. I guess it’s also what makes it, the radio show, funny and entertaining. But I’ve never really found, in my opinion, the radio show funny like I did the TV show. So when I saw that he was coming back to Bravo, I thought about it for a minute.

[00:12:31] Chalene Johnson : I’m like, it’s kind of the same cycle playing out for nearly 20 years. And 10 years ago, it felt kind of funny. It felt like harmless, comedic reality TV. But now it’s like, it’s kinda gross, where you have a business model where you make people believe that you are their close friends or that they mean a lot in your business, and then you just take them through this cycle where you bring them into your inner circle and then everybody g- gets invested in them, in their quirks, in their private lives, and so much is exposed.

[00:13:04] Chalene Johnson : And these people often expose so much more than they ever intended to because Jeff is really good at that. And then something goes wrong, and then suddenly this breakup becomes the content. And then who controls the narrative? He does. It’s crazy. And then the person who was once, like, beloved by Jeff and his audience gets dissected, gets mocked, gets discussed, gets, you know, quote, “canceled” by their people.

[00:13:29] Chalene Johnson : And no matter who it is, I’m not suggesting that Jeff was responsible for every fallout or, like, the start of every fallout, but th- without question, there’s a dynamic here, and it just keeps happening again, and again, and again, across decades. And the pattern just… I don’t know, it doesn’t feel cute to me anymore.

[00:13:49] Chalene Johnson : It doesn’t feel entertaining anymore. It feels a little sad I think as we age, we all become a little bit more of who we really are. Like the soft edges come off, and I think his have. And at some point I just started thinking to myself, would I wanna be in this person’s inner circle? no. Would I feel safe having a disagreement with someone like this?

[00:14:11] Chalene Johnson : No. And I’m also very self-aware enough to recognize that my own Patreon is sometimes that, but if you listen, you know it’s a pretty rare instance where I’m actually gonna give the name. I can share the details of the story and tell you exactly what happened, which I have on many occasions, without giving you the name.

[00:14:34] Chalene Johnson : And if you wanna piece it together, great, you can piece it together. But I, I don’t feel like I need to give you the name because that doesn’t make the story any juicier. If you’re so eager to figure it out, great, you’re gonna figure it out. But I think to give the person’s name means that you’ve put a target on them.

[00:14:48] Chalene Johnson : It means that you’re trying to make it personal, and I think that’s very different from sharing a story that I think other people can relate to. Anyways, I’m not gonna be watching the show If there’s one essential supplement that most people, most women in particular, are deficient in, it’s magnesium. And the reason why you constantly hear me talking about magnesium is because it’s probably the one supplement that has the biggest impact on almost every hormonal function in your body.

[00:15:16] Chalene Johnson : So whether you’re talking about sleep or bone density, your ability to relax, the way that your body processes nutrients, magnesium is responsible for so many different functions. And as I always say, like, your hormones don’t operate independently. You still have to make sure that they’re in balance, and that means making sure that they also have adequate nutrients so that they work properly.

[00:15:40] Chalene Johnson : And magnesium, because 75% of us don’t get enough of it in our diet, it is really important that you supplement with it. And the reason why I recommend BiOptimizers Magnesium Breakthrough is because now you don’t have to buy, like, seven different types of magnesium and be on, you know, capsule overload, like you’re taking pills all day long like Brian Johnson or something.

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[00:16:26] Chalene Johnson : I take a couple of capsules at night. But everybody’s different. You might need less than that. Here’s the part that really sold me when I was trying this form of magnesium. They have a 365-day money back guarantee, full refund, no questions asked if you’re not satisfied. And again, you get 10% off because you are a listener of The Chalene Show, but you need to go to this link, BiOptimizers with an S, bioptimizers.com/chalene.

[00:16:59] Chalene Johnson : I’m gonna spell it, B-I-O-P-T-I-M-I-Z-E-R-S.com/chalene.

[00:17:07] Chalene Johnson : It’s a great way to support the show. It’s a great way to support your health, bioptimizers.com/chalene Another show I did not watch in its entirety, but I’ve seen lots of the clips, I watched part of it, and that is the 2026 VMAs. And everyone is talking about Madonna. Madonna, Madonna, Madonna. If you’ve seen the clips, if you haven’t, let me describe what happened here.

[00:17:34] Chalene Johnson : Well, first of all, Madonna won seven awards. I will always be a Madonna lifer. I am a Madonna stan. I will never forget being in ninth grade, just being mesmerized, like wishing I was her. And she’s from Detroit. Just her style, I emulated all of it, tried to dress like her, her and Cyndi Lauper. Coming from a small town in Michigan, ugh, I was just like, “Oh, they’re just so freaking cool.”

[00:18:02] Chalene Johnson : I remember begging my parents to do Madonna impersonations. Like, I would enter these contests even in high school to impersonate Madonna. I’ve always loved her, so 40 years of loving this woman. It has never really waned. I still love her, and by love her, meaning I find all of the sometimes very, very inappropriate things I would never do, it just…

[00:18:26] Chalene Johnson : I still see it all as art. And I know some people have a really hard time separating the art from the things that are, like, disgusting that you would never do. But nonetheless, okay, so she appears on the VMA. She wins seven awards. Again, even me being a Madonna stan, I don’t understand How in the world she won these seven awards, that makes no sense to me whatsoever.

[00:18:49] Chalene Johnson : It makes sense to me that she would perform. It would make sense to me that she would do the things that she did in her performance. It makes sense to me the way that she even gave her acceptance speeches. That is Madonna. She has not changed. Okay, so let’s just set aside the fact that, like, all these awards didn’t make sense to me.

[00:19:08] Chalene Johnson : Okay, let’s just talk about how people have responded since then. So as per usual, Madonna highlights her sexuality. She dresses in a way that is going to make you talk about it the next day. She performs in s- like, this has always been Madonna. For this particular award show, she was wearing, I guess you could call it, like a bustier with a leotard bottom, which was very strange.

[00:19:33] Chalene Johnson : Now, Madonna has had… It looks as though, in my opinion, she’s had butt implants, which she’s had for a while. Like several years ago, I remember the first time I saw her, like, performing or seeing clips and, and I was like, “Oh my God, what has she done?” Now, has she done that to be controversial? Did she do that trying to have anyone believe that that was her butt?

[00:19:54] Chalene Johnson : I don’t know, but I assume it’s just because Madonna likes to do things, and always has, to keep us talking about her. This isn’t new. This isn’t Madonna fighting aging. This isn’t Madonna suddenly trying to be more sexual so that she can be relevant. No. Do your history. She has never, ever strayed from that.

[00:20:13] Chalene Johnson : She has always been this way. So anyway, she’s got this, like, big dump truck that just does not look normal in the back. Her body did look odd. It just looked bizarre, and I’m not talking about like this is, like, a 68-year-old kinda thing. Like, s- it was strange. I don’t know what was going on, but who cares?

[00:20:33] Chalene Johnson : She writhed around. It was very sexual. It was all the grabbing of the crotch, and having men stroke her, and, you know, all the things she’s always done. Caressing another woman, like, she’s always done those things. When she gave her award speeches, she’s now wearing some kind of a grill in her mouth. She’s always done things like that, just pushing the envelope.

[00:20:54] Chalene Johnson : You couldn’t hardly understand what she was saying. People were like, “Oh, she was stumbling around. She could barely walk.” Regardless, it doesn’t matter, but I did think it was very strange the following couple of days, and I was trying to figure out, like, why is this? Because when Dolly Parton performs, when Dolly Parton is wearing a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader uniform and performing at the Super Bowl, no one said, “Ew, gross.

[00:21:20] Chalene Johnson : She should sit down. Ew, disgusting. She’s trying to stay young.” Nobody said that. So, like, why do people say this about Madonna but they never said it about Dolly Parton? Because Dolly Parton certainly is doing the same… Not exactly the same, but, like, her whole shtick, her brand was very sexualized, the giant breasts, the tiny waist, the enormous hair, the huge stilettos, the rhinestones, the cosmetic surgery.

[00:21:43] Chalene Johnson : Things are coming out of my mouth right now that I’m like, “I love her. This is why I love her.” The low-cut clothes, you know, the skin-tight outfits. But the self-deprecating, funny way that she packaged it all just made everybody, I guess, comfortable.

She was funny about it. She was warm. She was Southern.

[00:22:00] Chalene Johnson : She was maternal. And maybe it’s because she always acknowledged aging, you know what I mean? In kind of like a funny way. So people always could look at Dolly, whether she’s, like, 75 or 80, and go, “We love her. It’s Dolly being Dolly.” But Madonna, the way she presents it, I guess, is- it’s challenging for people Sexual power isn’t decoration around her brand.

[00:22:25] Chalene Johnson : It’s like part of her messaging. She has spent her entire career empowering women, and actually, in her own words, sexualizing men, trying to control the male gaze rather than merely enjoying it, and deliberately trying to provoke people. I guess one of the bigger differences is that Dolly, I guess she allowed her, her own image to be sexualized, but she didn’t talk about being actively engaged in sex.

[00:22:55] Chalene Johnson : And I don’t know, maybe there’s a part of our society that just thinks at a certain age women shouldn’t talk about their sexuality. What do you think? Do you think that’s possibly true? I don’t feel that way. Like when- I’ve got girlfriends who are in their 70s who are hot, and I’m not even joking. Like, my girlfriend…

[00:23:17] Chalene Johnson : Oh my God, if you guys are not yet following Carrie Sisson, what are you even doing? She spoke at Camp BMore. She’s, I think, 71 years old. I would die for her bo- like her body is so amazing, but she works her ass off at it, like literally is in the gym lifting heavy all the time, and she just has a beautiful spirit.

[00:23:36] Chalene Johnson : And when I’m with her and her girlfriends who are of the same age or, you know, roughly there, I don’t think that it’s weird that they’re talking about those things. I’m like, “Oh, thank God,” because I can’t imagine 10 years from now, I’m 57, I can’t imagine being like 67 or- which is, how old is Madonna? Is she 67, 68 years old?

[00:23:53] Chalene Johnson : I can’t imagine like that’s going away or like that should be tucked away or we shouldn’t talk about it. But it’s really weird because when Madonna performs, nothing has changed, but everyone now says, if you go online like, oh, younger people loved Dolly Parton, loved her, beloved, but when it comes to Madonna, she really provokes people, and people are like, “Act your age.

[00:24:15] Chalene Johnson : This is gross.” I think Madonna just triggers something that Dolly didn’t Dolly would say, you know, “I’m an older woman who can still be glamorous and sexy,” and Madonna’s message is kind of like, “I’m older and I’m sexual, period. Why does my age change the rules?” I don’t know. Now, some people will say, and they have, ’cause I made a video about this, my opinion on TikTok, and I’m just basically saying exactly what I said there.

[00:24:41] Chalene Johnson : But under there, I have comments from, you know, of course the dissenters and people who are like, “But she’s so nasty. She talked about pulling a laser beam out of her butt.” She’s always done that. That’s my point. My whole point is this isn’t her fighting aging or trying to be relevant, this is her staying true to her.

[00:25:02] Chalene Johnson : And I just, I think it’s very interesting how… Is it ageism? I mean, Madonna has always been very deliberate in trying to make people uncomfortable. Someone can legitimately dislike her performance or choreography, what she’s doing with her body, what she’s doing with her teeth, her artistic direction. You can not like all of that and that doesn’t make you ageist.

[00:25:30] Chalene Johnson : The tell is why people like it When people say she’s 68 and it’s embarrassing, sit down already, that’s ageism, I think. When people are like, “Ew, I don’t like it. I just don’t like it,” doesn’t matter what age, I don’t think that’s ageism. So I, you know, just because people are criticizing her performance, that doesn’t automatically make someone an ageist, ’cause I think some people are criticizing her performance, and in the same vein of my argument, her performances have always been criticized.

[00:26:04] Chalene Johnson : I guess what’s different now is her performances always made people very, very uncomfortable. She’s still doing all the same things. They were uncomfortable for people to tolerate watching a young woman behaving this way, and now it’s like, it’s almost intolerable to see a woman who’s 68, which by the way is still very young.

[00:26:22] Chalene Johnson : I mean, that’s so young. But it’s more uncomfortable for people to see that. Anyways, rest in peace, Dolly Parton. We love you, and we miss you. Speaking of Dolly Parton, I’ve been forgetting that I wanna share a hooker hack with you, which is really just what I call some overly done-up girl hack that whenever I tell my girlfriends, “Oh, I’m, I just do blah blah blah,” they’re like, “Why didn’t anyone ever tell us?

[00:26:50] Chalene Johnson : Like, that’s such a good idea. We can’t keep these secrets from each other.” So I’ve got one for you today, and that is people are constantly asking me about my curly hair or my waves, my beach waves. “How do you do that? How do you do that?” You can buy hair extensions that already have a wave in them. That’s the way to go, ladies, I’m telling you.

[00:27:10] Chalene Johnson : I’m not trying to fool anyone over here that I can grow all this hair. Oh, hell no. Like, my hair just will not grow anymore. Like, it’ll grow, but it just won’t grow past a certain spot. Like, it just, the ends break off. So the volume that you see, yeah, that’s all hair extensions. And they sell hair extensions.

[00:27:27] Chalene Johnson : People always say, like, “What brand?” I don’t have a, a specific brand. A lot of times the hair stylist that I work with, they will get them themselves. A lot of stylists like to do that. You can buy them yourself too, but just search for genius weft- I don’t know whether you like genius weft or hand-tied weft or tape-ins.

[00:27:47] Chalene Johnson : It doesn’t matter what type of extensions you like. You can find them with a nice tight curl if that’s your natural hair, or like a loose wavy curl if that’s your natural hair, or pin straight. Just keep in mind that the ones that are curly have been processed, so they are gonna be drier. In my opinion, they don’t last as long.

[00:28:08] Chalene Johnson : But yeah, that’s my hack for you today. Like talk about a time-saving step, because I was getting pin straight extensions and then having to curl them every other day. My own hair is wavy. Like I can scrunch it and I’ll, I can make it wavy, but I like to curl the top of it, and then I don’t have to worry about underneath because that’s all extensions, and they’re already wavy.

[00:28:30] Chalene Johnson : So when I wash them, I just scrunch them up, let them air dry, and there you go Are your hormones dialed in? Have you optimized all of your hormone levels, including testosterone? But I just wanna say that you need to know women lose up to half of their natural testosterone when they hit perimenopause, and that’s not just about sex drive.

[00:28:54] Chalene Johnson : Dude, that is energy. That is brain fog. That is your body’s ability to build muscle, to use stored body fat as energy. Maybe before we go thinking like your only answer is a GLP-1, look at your hormones. Consider what are your testosterone levels. Get them checked. The place that I use obviously is Midi Health.

[00:29:16] Chalene Johnson : I talk about them all the time. It’s why I’m very proud to have them be a show sponsor because it’s a reputable telehealth company, and there’s a lot of them out there that are fly by night trying to make a quick buck. Midi Health, they have been at the forefront of FDA-approved testosterone specifically made for women.

[00:29:36] Chalene Johnson : When I first started my journey on testosterone, there was no testosterone that was FDA-approved for women, even though we produce testosterone the same way men… Not the same way, but we produce it just like men do. Of course, men are approved for it, but women weren’t until recently. But now there is a 2025 PubMed review that actually confirms that testosterone is normal.

[00:30:02] Chalene Johnson : It’s biological. It is normal for women. It’s a hormone that we need. It’s something that doesn’t just affect sex drive. It affects desire. It affects energy, mood, cognition, bone density, muscle. That’s why I wanna tell you that Midi actually has built a virtual care appointment specifically around this. So no pellets ’cause, you know, when you put in a testosterone pellet, if it’s the wrong dose, it’s in there.

[00:30:27] Chalene Johnson : There’s no adjusting it. You don’t have to inject a lesser amount of a man’s dose. That’s what I had to do initially, but now there’s a gel that’s specifically formulated for women. So if you’ve been feeling, like, low on energy, low libido, and you’re thinking it’s just because your partner’s bugging you, maybe it’s not.

[00:30:46] Chalene Johnson : Maybe you actually need some testosterone. I’m telling you, it makes a ginormous difference. Now listen, it’s not available in all states, but at the moment There’s 25 states that Midi’s testosterone program is available in. They keep adding more. If I were you, please go to chalene.com/test, T-E-S-T, and book yourself an appointment.

[00:31:07] Chalene Johnson : Get yourself a visit with a Midi Health clinician. They will listen to you. You wanna go into this appointment prepared. Know what it is your objectives are, what your goals are. Tell them what tests you would like to have run. If you’re not sure about this, I’ve done lots of episodes explaining it. You can do your own AI research on what you should be asking for.

[00:31:26] Chalene Johnson : You can ask them to order for you a DEXA scan, hormone panel, a thyroid panel. You can tell them specifically you’re considering hormone replacement therapies. Maybe it’s a GLP-1. Whatever it is, they can help you with it, and they work with almost all of the major insurance companies, which is pretty rare.

[00:31:44] Chalene Johnson : If you’re looking for a doctor in the longevity space, the anti-aging, regenerative medicine, integrative health, most of that care is out-of-pocket, so it’s really hard to find a reputable company that actually works with your insurance. That’s why I’m very proud to affiliate with Midi Health. So again, it’s chalene.com/test, T-E-S-T.

[00:32:09] Chalene Johnson : I mentioned last week, talking about Cindy Crawford and her husband, Rande Gerber, losing their son, Presley. I said I’m not gonna talk about it too much because we just didn’t know, and I think people have to show respect and decorum and some humanity in these situations and these scenarios. But I wanna bring up something that I’ve noticed in the last week that I just think is disgusting.

[00:32:39] Chalene Johnson : I know someone like Megyn Kelly, I, I know that she’s a political commentator, so what I’m about to say has nothing to do with her politics, so don’t come at me She’s gross. I’m sorry. Actually, I think all people who have zero regard for human decency and all they care about is ratings, and they don’t think about what it is they’re saying and how hurtful it could be and how inappropriate it is, it’s just karma’s gotta come back and hit these people.

[00:33:14] Chalene Johnson : And she’s not the only one. I’ve seen so many creators, YouTubers and TikTokers and people on Instagram who have no clue. They are the people whose channels and their personalities and their brands are centered around taking down and commenting on and judging other people, and usually women. I can’t imagine.

[00:33:39] Chalene Johnson : Do you actually feel good if the only reason why you’re making money, the sole purpose of your brand, is to criticize other people’s lives and how they’re living them even though you know nothing really about them other than clips on TV? Whatever. You have no talent. You have nothing that you’re specifically doing.

[00:33:57] Chalene Johnson : You’re not uplifting anyone. You’re literally feeding into this side of us that likes to hear bad things about other people, people that we’re jealous of. The fact that I’ve watched so many creators this week Almost saying that Cindy Crawford and her husband were somehow responsible for their son’s death.

[00:34:20] Chalene Johnson : That is gross. People acting as though and spreading these rumors as fact that Cindy and her husband pushed their children into modeling and sent them off into the lion’s den and sent them on jobs where they weren’t present, had no idea who these people were working with. I happen to have heard other stories, and I’m gonna say, how would I even know that those things are true?

[00:34:47] Chalene Johnson : ‘Cause I’ve never had a conversation about these things with Cindy or Randy. But the fact that people are right now, within a week of their son’s tragic passing, using this opportunity, why? Because it’s newsworthy, to say the most horrific, judgmental things where they have no idea. The pain that these two must be feeling makes me sick to my stomach.

[00:35:14] Chalene Johnson : Anyone who loses a child deserves peace. I don’t care how responsible you think they are. I mean, people are picking apart interviews that they did 10 years ago. I mean, can you imagine someone pulling up a post or a, an interview or, or just even a conversation that was recorded of you or with your kids and having something tragic like this happening and, and then people pulling this up and making this part of their storytelling?

[00:35:45] Chalene Johnson : You already know the tragic ending. So then you go backwards and you’re looking for clips that fit your narrative, and then creators are making these videos, and it’s just like I’ve talked about on previous weeks. And then other people make these videos, and then other people make these videos, and they’re, they’re not citing their sources, but they’re sharing the story as if everything that they’re sharing is factual.

[00:36:08] Chalene Johnson : It’s no different than the Lindsay Clancy case. It’s no different from any of these situations where we take things as being source because we’ve heard it so many times. But the reason why we’ve heard it so many times is because it’s performing well according to the algorithm, and everyone is so desperate to get some engagement and get some clickbait that they take somebody else’s script, like word for word, and repeat it, and now you’ve heard that same story repeated hundreds of times, so you believe it to be true.

[00:36:38] Chalene Johnson : Good Lord. And then it’s like a creator ecosystem. Obviously, it is driven by the algorithm, but it’s like an entire genre, and it’s disproportionately women talking about other women, where the product isn’t reporting, the product isn’t comedy, the product, their brand is judgment. And the formula is basically find a woman who’s got some notoriety.

[00:37:06] Chalene Johnson : She doesn’t even have to be a celebrity. It can just be, like, someone who’s suddenly gained popularity on TikTok or Instagram, whatever. Then identify something about them that you’ve decided is problematic, and then psychoanalyze her, and then assign motives, and then give her a diagnosis, and then collect old clips or make up things, and then show that content as evidence.

[00:37:27] Chalene Johnson : And then there’s enough people in the world who have nothing going on in their own lives, and so watching somebody else get taken down who you see as above you somehow makes people feel good, I guess. And outrage has to be replenished, right? Constantly. So whatever we’re speculating about yesterday, we need something new to speculate on tomorrow.

[00:37:51] Chalene Johnson : It’s just sad All these stories I’m seeing about the Gerbers, and I just, I think it’s horrible because we don’t know. We didn’t live in their home. We don’t even know the official cause of death. What we do know, hopefully, is how to be decent human beings, but we’ve forgotten. And I think, again, a lot of this stems from people desperate to make an impact with their social media following.

[00:38:18] Chalene Johnson : Like, I’m just blocking people now that maybe I- once upon a time, I ran across a funny video of them, and now I realize, like, their whole algorithm is doing split screens or doing green screens, and they’re just, like, ripping apart a woman for her body, ripping apart a woman for her lifestyle, ripping apart a woman because she’s earning an income making supplements, and she’s a doctor.

[00:38:43] Chalene Johnson : She’s a medical doctor, and she has a degree in nutrition. And this is a, a real thing. I’m not gonna add names to this, but there’s a very well-known hormone doctor who has made the biggest difference that I can think of when it comes to the conversation about menopause, and she has a supplement line.

[00:39:03] Chalene Johnson : And I’ve seen so many creators make videos saying that all she cares about is the money. This is a money grab, and this just proves that she had money motivations the whole time. What are we talking about? She’s probably the most qualified person I could think of to create a supplement line specifically for this population.

[00:39:24] Chalene Johnson : Have something better to do with your life than to look for ways to destroy other women. Like, it just says so much about these creators and how they feel about themselves and what they need to do and the type of energy that they need to attract to make themselves feel better. I’ll tell you what.

[00:39:42] Chalene Johnson : Successful, confident women do not have time. They would never make time to take down another woman. They don’t need to So consider the motive. Consider what’s happening inside of the woman whose whole brand centers around destroying and picking apart and judging other women. I watched too many times an influencer on Instagram who’s either lost a child or lost a loved one or something horrific has happened.

[00:40:17] Chalene Johnson : Some- in fact, there’s one recently, her name was Emily Kaiser. She’s a TikTok mom, lifestyle creator. Pretty central to her content was her son, who was three. His name was Trig. She went… I forget if she went to spend time with friends or she was running an errand, whatever, but her husband was watching the kids.

[00:40:39] Chalene Johnson : Their son accidentally fell into the family’s backyard pool and he drowned. This is in Arizona. This just happened, like, a year ago. People just destroyed this family, like, immediately. Immediately people were discussing how it was their fault, blaming the parents, blaming them for negligence, blaming them, attacking them for being distracted, digging through her old TikToks looking for evidence that they weren’t great parents.

[00:41:14] Chalene Johnson : Like, make- the number of videos that were made after losing their son just picking apart and judging every single thing that these parents did, I just can’t imagine. I can imagine thinking those things. I have no problem with you thinking thoughts. I think that’s how we regulate what is safe, right from wrong in society.

[00:41:38] Chalene Johnson : And I think even to have those conversations with our friends and our family members is how we know, like, what is acceptable and how do we improve ourselves. That makes sense to me. I’m not saying that we don’t have judgment. I’m saying it’s weird that people treat other people who are well-known or have some kind of a platform or have a decent amount of following as if they’re not human I think it’s, again, this is one of the ugly sides of social media, where it’s created this disturbing genre of content where people turn somebody else’s incredible tragedy into an invitation or an investigation or a public prosecution, basically.

[00:42:23] Chalene Johnson : Again, I’m going to say this, and I’m sure it’s gonna bring some people out of the woodwork, but I think it’s just horrific what happens to people like Patrick Clancy. People analyzing the way he sat on the 60 Minutes interview. You don’t have anyone awkward in your family? You don’t have a distant relative who’s shy and has strange body language?

[00:42:48] Chalene Johnson : Just cut the man some slack. People digging through years of old interviews and posts. No matter what it is, when people are experiencing tragedy, I think it’s so inhumane to take that time, take that moment, the worst moment in someone’s life, and make it worse. I used to engage in some of that co- I used to watch some of that content.

[00:43:12] Chalene Johnson : Now when I get it, I swipe away because I really do believe what we’ve done is we’ve crossed a line where- Cruelty is being disguised as content, and I think social media makes a lot of people unhappy, makes them feel they aren’t enough, they don’t have enough things, their life isn’t as fun or as exciting, and so it’s a distraction.

[00:43:37] Chalene Johnson : Or maybe it makes you feel better for a minute or two, or you think it does, but it never does in the long run. We all should take a vow to decide to focus on ourselves before spending hours entertained by content that strives to take down, to judge, and to pick apart other people’s lives. It’s just… It’s weird.

[00:43:59] Chalene Johnson : I have an update for those of you who’ve been following along on my Instagram. Oh, and, and an update on the penthouse. So you know the penthouse that we’re in in Miami, you know, the whole construction story. I’m not gonna get into it, but let’s just say it looks as though we will be moving, and it looks as though that’s gonna be happening on, I don’t know, the first week of November, I should say.

[00:44:22] Chalene Johnson : We found a location that’s, like, a block down the street, and the price on this place was insane. Part of the reason why, ’cause it- it’s huge. It’s like, it’s much bigger than the one that we’re in now, and it’s a… I think it’s a much better building. It’s like a godsend. I mean, I’m so happy about it. However, it is a typical Miami new apartment, new condo.

[00:44:44] Chalene Johnson : It’s in a, you know, a new building. In typical Miami fashion, you’ll see a lot of places like this, where it’s just floor-to-ceiling glass all the way around, everything white. White floors, white walls, white appliances, white, white, white, white, white. I’m sorry, but no personality whatsoever. Super modern.

[00:45:06] Chalene Johnson : Okay There’s not a stitch of furniture in this place. Since we made residency here in Florida, and just as a reminder, we are no longer California residents, we do have a place in California, the place that we had on the beach, we still own it. It is currently under construction. The entire street got wiped out with that last huge storm.

[00:45:27] Chalene Johnson : Our place was safe ’cause it was up on caissons. That’s a side note. ‘Cause everyone’s like, “Well, why don’t you just move back into that house?” Well, because we’re Florida residents now. We like living here. Anyway, so we’re moving into this new condo, and it’s got no furniture in it, and all the places that we’ve been living into prior to this all were furnished, which is great, right?

[00:45:44] Chalene Johnson : Because I don’t know about you, but every time you move into a place, when you try to make your old furniture fit, it just never does. Sure, there’s, like, a random piece here and a random piece there, and art and rugs. Sure, you can make it work, but for the most part, it’s hard to make furniture fit. Beds, sure, that works.

[00:46:00] Chalene Johnson : Okay. Each time we’ve moved, we’ve moved into a furnished building or a furnished apartment. This one has no furniture. I don’t know where to start. Like, I don’t even know how to do this. I’m not an interior designer, and I also do interiors very slow. I like to think about them. I like to see how I’m gonna live in the room, but I don’t have that opportunity.

[00:46:20] Chalene Johnson : We have to, like, figure out what we need, which feels very overwhelming. Also, how do I do that and make it feel like it’s got some personality? And do that quickly, because that’s, like, a month from now. Okay, so then I had this idea. Well, actually, no, first… Then I start, like, searching, and I just, you know, took it to, to AI.

[00:46:38] Chalene Johnson : I’m like, “You know, I n- I need furniture that has a lot of personality, isn’t, like, ultra-modern. Here’s the… I’m, I’m moving into a white box, but I want it to feel warm, and I wanna see color, and I want it to have personality. But also, I want it to feel like mine, but also will probably only be there for, like, I don’t know, two years.”

[00:46:56] Chalene Johnson : It’s a lease, right? I will never buy a $10,000 couch, never. I don’t care if I’m Oprah. No, I just can’t. That’s just not me. I mean, spending a lot of money on furniture that I know I’m gonna change my mind and want a different style, like, a year later, I can’t do it. You know, I start searching for companies that have, like, affordable furniture that’s not gonna fall apart, but looks really cool, blah, blah, blah.

[00:47:17] Chalene Johnson : So I find this company called Tov, T-O-V. And I’m like, “Oh, this is perfect. This is perfect.” Then I’m like, again, I don’t know where to start. I don’t know how to figure out room dimensions, all these things. So I, I come up with this idea. I’m like, first of all, they had some pieces of furniture on their site that I’m like, “Oh my, I need to know more about their designers.

[00:47:35] Chalene Johnson : Who’s the designer behind this?” And I find out it’s this, this married couple, and they’re super cute, and they’re here in Miami. They’re in Miami Beach. And I’m like, “Okay, I’ve got a big following. I am gonna see if I can’t get a partnership with them And we can work out some kind of a deal. Like, maybe they’ve got…

[00:47:54] Chalene Johnson : Like, I will take everybody in my audience along with me on the journey, and in exchange for them helping me figure out how to do this, like, maybe they’ve got an interior designer, obviously, on staff who can help. Like, we could document the whole journey. And what would be in it for me? Well, help, number one.

[00:48:15] Chalene Johnson : And number two, being completely transparent. Maybe I could set up some kind of, like, affiliate deal with them, where I wouldn’t even ask them to pay me for any posts or pay for the furniture or anything like that. Like, just set up an opportunity where I can document the whole process, number one. And number two, I can also take my community along for the ride and explain, like, everything.

[00:48:36] Chalene Johnson : So I’ve been doing this. Like, I’ve been documenting it in detail on my Patreon. I’ve been reading to you there, like, the specific letter, word for word, everything I wrote to pitch this idea that I had and who I wrote it to and, and how I basically stalked all the people who work for Tov until I finally got a response.

[00:48:56] Chalene Johnson : Now, I will tell you this: I’ve heard from them, but we don’t have anything in stone yet. My advisors, shall we say, and other people who I know who are influencers or do these kinds of partnerships, they’re like, “You should not be putting all of your eggs in one basket. You really should put this out to, like, a bunch of different furniture companies, especially with your timing, Chalene, and you should probably work with a company that’s done this a lot.”

[00:49:21] Chalene Johnson : Dude, I just don’t operate that way. I go balls to the wall. I always put all my eggs in one basket. I get geeked out about one… I’ve never been the kind of person who waits for brands to come to me. I don’t do that. I wait until I’m obsessed with something, and then I go to the brand and I’m like, “Hey, me and my girls, we’d like to be taken care of.

[00:49:41] Chalene Johnson : I’m obsessed with you, and so let’s be partners,” because it’s legit, and that is how I’ve built trust. That’s how I’ve built a community who, thankfully, you guys very much trust me, and that is something I really care about. It’s also why I probably need to go to their… ‘Cause I’ve never sat in it. I don’t know.

[00:50:00] Chalene Johnson : Does their furniture feel cheap? I don’t know So I need to find… I guess they have, like, a showroom maybe here in Miami. I need to go… See, I’m just now realizing, like, I may have gotten ahead of myself, because I don’t wanna platform this company if I don’t know about the quality of it. It looks amazing. I read lots of reviews.

[00:50:17] Chalene Johnson : But anyways, I’m gonna keep you guys posted, and if you go to my Instagram, you can follow along on the journey. You can see how I try to get on their radar, and you can see some of the furniture that they have. And I would love to take you along with me, and I’d like for you to help me decide on the pieces, assuming it’s with this company.

[00:50:34] Chalene Johnson : If it’s not with this company, then I’ll go to… I have three furniture companies that are at the top of my list, but Tav was number one. So we’ll see how that all checks out, because I kinda h- really got anxious about somebody reaching out to me over the weekend. Like as if everybody should be thinking about this on the weekends.

[00:50:54] Chalene Johnson : And they finally did reach out on Monday, but now here it is Tuesday night, I still haven’t heard. They were like, “Yeah, that sounds interesting.” I’m like, “Uh, uh, okay. But, uh, w- now what?” H- I’ve got all these questions, and I sent a follow-up. Any- I’ll detail all of it on my stories and keep you posted, but nothing is finalized yet.

[00:51:16] Chalene Johnson : Like, I’m getting the kind of like, “Oh, that sounds interesting” pat on the top of my head. I’m like, “No, no. No, no, no. You don’t understand. We need to go, and we need to get real serious about this, and we need to get, to get a crack-a-lackin’, because what I’m suggesting we could do together is insane.” Like, I don’t think it’s been done before.

[00:51:33] Chalene Johnson : So anyways, yeah, you can see more about that on my Instagram stories. I saved the highlight under design diaries. If you are an interior decorator and you wanna be a part of this, like, you wanna give me your input, specifically if you are someone whose forte is leased or rented prop- like renter-friendly transformations, girl, I wanna hear from you.

[00:52:00] Chalene Johnson : Reach out to me. You’re gonna need to include your Instagram handle so I can, we can take a look at your style, et cetera, and tell us how you wanna be involved. Like, I’m happy to platform some lovelies and just make this a community project. It’s theshaleneshow@gmail.com. And anyways, thank you for spending some time with me today.

[00:52:21] Chalene Johnson : I love you. I mean it, and I’ll talk to you soon.